Lots of preliminary fitting on this one. Perhaps Special Hobby was planning on thinner fuselage shells when they designed the four internal bulkheads, all of them needed work in order for the fuselage sides to come together.
The four main parts just taped together, cowl and fuselage aft part are separate. Nice fit although one aft fuselage side is just slightly longer than the other. Left the mismatch at the tail.
Notice the gap where the cowl joins the fuselage, in the panel aft of the cowl flaps. This is a vent for the accessory section of the engine so don't fill it. The louvers just below the tape are for a P-36C so they must be removed.
Still with the fuselage parts just taped together, thick CA glue was used in the locations shown, taking care to not join the left and right sides of the assembly.
At this point the wing was taped together and fitted to the fuselage. A little material removed from the area shown allowed a good fit on the bottom.
The front fuselage bulkhead was fitted next. Material was removed from both sides evenly, and also on the bottom. None was removed from the top so that the fit of the guns, which rest in the holes at the top, would not be affected. It was necessary to check the wing fit during this process because the front of the wing rests on the bottom of this bulkhead. A little material was also removed from the stubs that stick out on the bottom so they fit between the wings.
The bulkhead after fitting.
The aft cockpit bulkhead also needed some trimming on the sides to allow the fuselage to come together without gaps. Once that was done, the front bulkhead, floor, and rear bulkhead were set in place, tape holding the floor at the right height, and the bulkheads were glued to the right fuselage assembly. The floor was then glued to the bulkheads on the bottom. A part has been attached to the back of the aft bulkhead before installation, it has details visible through a large opening in the aft bulkhead.
The ribs around the wheel wells are being installed here. Although the P-36A at this early a time in its life should have canvas wheel well boots and none of this will be visible, it was found that these parts push up the upper surface of the wing and give a better match with the fuselage wing fairings so they were installed.
The wing center section was filed down some where it fits to the front fuselage bulkhead. The leading edge of the wings have been super glued in the root areas and are clamped while curing. When cured, the trailing edges were pulled down into place again at the root, and glued with CA. Then the remainder of the gluing was done with thin model cement.
A nice fit has been obtained without stress on the plastic. Gaps remain at the front of the wing root, and as will be seen there remains a gap on the upper wing roots.
A fixture was made to set up the proper dihedral. It was found that the wing is molded at the correct dihedral according to the template scaled from the Detail and Scale drawings, but at the correct dihedral there is a gap at the upper wing roots.
Plastic card will be glued to the upper wing halves and then sanded until a good fit is obtained here.
Fuselage halves separated.
With all the necessary fitting, the designed method of attaching the instrument panel was not going to be practical. A square of plastic card was glued to the back of the assembled panel so it could be glued to the forward bulkhead. Some fitting was required so that the panel joined the cockpit sidewalls in the right locations.
Another test fitting with the fuselage sidewalls in place. The left sidewall has just been glued to the left fuselage half but not to the floor or bulkheads.
Here the right fuselage side panel, instrument panel, and both gun butts are glued in place.
Another view.