The main build is now complete. She's ready for priming and painting.
There were a few challenges with the build, but they were not unexpected. The resin cockpit, engine and wheel wells fit and integrated well. The instrument panel did not fit into the fuselage at all -- lots of scraping and fit checking to get it aligned. A liberal amount of epoxy came in handy for the large resin parts. Sorry for the lack of photos but the mission took priority.
The other challenge was sequencing the assembly of the cowling panels, fuselage and wings during the build. My focus was ensuring the cowl panels all fit properly around the front ring and that the top nose covers and bottom cowl covers all lined up. Lots of fit checking and rework but it ended up OK. There are no locating pins or alignment tabs so I added several strengthening tabs to the nose panels and fit checked multiple times before pulling everything together.
Overall, the kit is pretty nice so far. Not as simple as the Hasagawa 1/32 190, but there are some positives: (1) superb fabric surface rendering - it really looks like fabric stretched over a metal frame, (2) restrained panel line detail and limited number of rivets -- similar level to Hasegawa IMO, and (3) a large number of options with 16 different aircraft from A-0 to A-4.
On the flip side: (1) inconsistent detail - for example missing hinges on all access panels, (2) inconsistent molding quality - quite a bit of flash and many sink and pin marks on important surfaces, along with panel lines varying in depth and width, and (3) many parts are too thick - armor plating headrest, trailing edges of all surfaces, prop fan, ammo covers, landing gear covers, etc. I spent quite a bit of time thinning these down.
The build has been more work than usual (a little more than Hasegawa, but a lot less than the Revell 262), but the result is a nice, clean canvas for painting.
Thanks for following along.