Thanks guys, it's definitely a different experience.
Sorry for not posting sooner, just didn't feel like hitting the table again until last night. This is my second attempt at a low volume, Eastern European kit. (The first, MPM's XP-55 Ascender sits so far in the depths of the Shelf of Doom that not even Indiana Jones could find it. Not that he'd want to.). Let's get to the pics.
The fuselage.
You get used to certain things when you build a kit from one of the major manufacturers, parts numbers molded on the sprue and the exhaust backing plates are molded into the fuselage. Not so with this kit. The sprue diagram with the parts numbers is close at hand and properly oriented so I can find the parts Here's a pic of the right fuselage half without the mounting plate for the exhausts.
The left side with the plate installed.
The wings, topside.
The topsides of the wings are molded smooth and you have to apply the gun and tire bulges separately. This makes sense because the aircraft in question may or may not have had them. From what I can tell, the IDF Mk. IXs had the gun bulges, but not the tire bulges.
The instructions also called for a couple of pieces to box in the undercarriage, but I couldn't get the wing halves to fit properly so I removed them. They're not noticeable so I'm not worried.
The cockpit.
Normally a pretty straight forward assembly, not so much with this kit. The main hassle was getting the supports for the armor plate seat back to line up. They're individual pieces that are glued to the rear frame of the cockpit and have nothing to locate them for proper alignment. I think I did all right. In looking for a review of this kit, it seems like this has been fixed in later editions so this is probably a moot point. Here's the pit as it is now.
In looking at the picture, it looks like I still have some clean up to do. All I have to is shoot some British Interior Green, install the seat and instrument panel and she'll be ready to button up. Fortunately, I have already tested the fact that the pit can be installed from the bottom of the fuselage.
The instructions.
Aren't too bad. The assembly drawings appear to be hand drawn, but do a good job of showing you where the parts go. The bad thing about them is they don't tell you what parts go on which version. As I said in my first post, three aircraft can be built from the markings provided. The kit provides two different exhausts and two sets of wheels, instructions don't tell you what goes with which plane. From what I've been able to figure out, it's possible that this is the same plane in various stages of it's service life. She started out in the RAF. After WWII, she went to the Czech AF. Due to the Soviets forcing the Czech AF to use their equipment, she was sold to the Israelis in 1948. Which means that I'll be using the fishtail exhaust stacks and four spoke wheels. (Thanks Google). More soon.