You're a brave man George.
I made this kit years and years ago when it was Monogram in blue plastic before I got my first airbrush. You've got a lot of work ahead of you to bring it up to modern standards.
I recently pulled mine off the shelf dusted it off and did some repairs including the landing gear. I had left the gear operational back when I built it and it would no longer stand on the legs so I glueed the working mechanism which seem to work out pretty good. If you aren't going to detail the landing gear bays it might make things simpler if you install the landing gear legs so they're movable, leave them folded up in the wing while you build the rest of the plane and then when you're ready, extend them and glue them solid. I used tube glue for the pivot joint and liquid glue for the gear leg rotation joint.