Thanks for the great cockpit photos, Destrozas! I saw the ones in Fubar's post too... great references but my cockpit's already buried into the fuselage!
Rolling along now... this is going to be a quick build! With fuselage halves together, I contemplated how to attach the wings while minimizing the gaps. In the meantime, I prepared the landing gear and the numerous doors with paint and a light wash. White balance difficulties with my point-n-shoot cam gives the impression that they are green but they are actually bluish-grey, the same color as the cockpit walls.
Pre-fitting the wings led me to go with the standard construction order of wing attachment. The top wing halves were attached to the bottom wing and then the assembly was attached to the fuselage. It didn't fit as nicely as I hoped. I wanted to the leave the wing attachment joint as a panel line but due to the ill fit, I filled it in using Mr. White Putty finished off with Mr. Surfacer 1000. The back wing edge to the bottom fuselage joint proved to be more problematic. Due to a gap, the bottom back edge of the wing assembly didn't bond with the fuselage. This meant that the joint wasn't stable and the intial putty work cracked. I had fused the rest of the wing assembly pretty securely so there was nothing I could think of doing except trying to force a weld joint using liquid glue. It helped a little but I'm not convinced that a crack won't form there at some point in time.
All that thinking and pre-planning and I still couldn't save myself this grief!
Geo... if you read this, I suggest that you make sure that you get a good bond here!
The cowling was snapped on sans engine, the cockpit opening sealed with Tamiya tape and the landing gear openings stuffed with Silly Putty. I wanted to check the putty work so I primed the entire plane with Mr. Surfacer 1000 heavily thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner.
The shape of the pudgy Polikarpov is finally revealed! After some finishing surface work, I will preshade and begin the camo painting!