Part 2: Cockpit, first attempt
Thing start off easy enough. One floor, three walls, and two boxes go together to make the start of a cockpit. It's worth noting that there are absolutely no color callouts here. In fact, there are no color callouts anywhere in the instructions until the very end where we are informed that the outside of the bomber is FS36118 and the wheel wells are White. This is why my title of this build is "You're on your own!". Want to know how to paint the interior of one of the least-documented aircraft in existence? You're on your own! Some internet research gives me the general impression of a light gray interior with black instruments, so we'll go with that. Step 3 adds a partial bulkhead separating the front and rear of the cockpit, and that's when things get weird...
From underneath the overhead arch of the bulkhead, parts C41 and C40 are attached. These look a bit like overturned tables with different sized legs. In the next step the ejection seat rails are attached to them, but first... how are they attached? The instructions seem to suggest that the middle of the tables will contact the underside of the bulkhead, but the tables are flat and the bulkhead is curved. The tables look to be vertically aligned which means you'd be attempting to attach these parts by a single edge, which isn't likely to work. Future steps aren't any clearer:
Here the table appears to be passing through the bulkhead, in a way that may work in a 3D model but isn't going to work very well in real space. It brings to mind other famous drawings of "impossible shapes"...
I attempted to align the part where I think it's supposed to go, and from this position it's not touching ANYTHING.
I sought out other builds and reviews on the internet and found nothing but confusion about this particular part. One person slid it forward so it would contact the back of the bulkhead. I believe that will put the ejection seat rails at an improper angle. Another person angled the tables to touch two points on the arch, which doesn't look right either. I suspect that the "legs" of the tables will interface with the upper part of the fuselage when everything goes together, so to get these parts in the wrong spots is to risk an improper fit later on.
Feeling frustrated and defeated, I called it a night. The next day I decided to set aside the cockpit and proceed with the other construction steps, hoping that once everything else was together I could figure out how best to install these parts.