Thanks... Yeah, those cowls are an adult female dog, as is the fit of the stabs... Not haing built the kit since the 70s, I'd forgotten that it had a few problems... I've never found the 1/48th ESCI kit that came out around that time, so I've no comparison... However, I'm a die-hard Monogram builder, and I still insist that there's no kit from them that's as bad as some folks have purported them to be... Once Monogram decided to make models instead of toys (Starting with the P-40B), they really set the standard of model kits for others to emulate.. Of course, the others did do that, and surpass, but not at nearly the same price... I really get a "pang" of nostalgia for them when I look through my old mags from the 80s & 90s and see these same kits at 3.99 and such (I think the B-26 initially came out at around 6.99)...
Anyway, back to the build... I tried something different with the second Maruader, that is to say that I attacked the wing/fuselage joint with a sanding stick... It took very little effort to remove a couple areas that were causing the fit problem and I don't need to add any strip or sprue to fill the joint (it still needs putty and rescribing though not nearly as much)...
I'm also using the stock rear turret set-up instead of the modified one, and that's gonna save some time, putty, & sanding there, although the fit of canopy section over the tail will need a bit of attention, as it doesn't sit properly on the fuselage edge if you make a tight fit of the rear section.. The situation is reversed if you go for a tight fit on the edge, the rear won't fit right, and sits too far below the rudder and at a rather extreme angle... So the strip will get used in this area to ensure a good canopy/fuselage fit... The other option, since it's a factory setting, is to not use it all and just detail the tail position, leaving the canopy at the side of the aircraft awaiting installation... I'll use a Thumb-Operated Dual-sided Digital Decision Generator* (TODDGEN) when that time comes...
*TODDGEN= Flip a coin