Vic, Wayne, thanks for the kind words. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Toronto to visit family and catch the Hamilton airshow so progress will be stalled once again. There's supposed to be 2-B-17's flying in - hope they're not grounded after the incident near Chicago.
Thanks gentlemen. Got a bit done today as the following pics show.
The cockpit was finished and glued into one fuselage half after a fair amount of trimming away of some of the raised frames to allow the breaker panel and deck to fit properly. Once that was done, the right half of the split intrument panel was positioned and dabbed with CA. The instructions are vague here and it was only after positively fitting the left panel that it was possible to line up the right. If the instructions were followed, the right half would have been incorrectly placed. Seen below is the back of the finished instrument panel with wiring harnesses added from fine copper wire.
To make the tail wheel well look a little less cavernous, I added some framing trimmed from plastic card, seen below before applying a coat of RLM 02.
Finally, the fuselage halves have been glued together and will set overnight before attacking the seam. The fit along the rim of the cockpit tub turned out to be pretty good.
Here's a shot of the overall fuselage as it now appears. I did remove the rudder beforehand so that this will be slightly cranked. Also key here is that the entire front section remains without cement as this will be important to allow adjustment for the clear piece that needs to close the gap in the nose.