Well I've made a start, and immediately dropped two rather large b*ll*cks!!
I don't know if it's the distraction of the pain, now thankfully nowhere near as bad, or thinking too far ahead as to which way to best assemble the bits and pieces, this being my first ICM build, even though this kit is almost certainly a 'borrowed' Tamiya kit!
The first mess-up was almost a mini-disaster, as I started to drill the hole for the lower fuselage camera port in the wrong place!
PIC 1. shows the result, with the 'error' at bottom left, and the correct aperture above and to the right, awaiting clean-up. The other, smaller hole is the lifting/jacking point. The camera port will be 'boxed in' beneath the radiator trunking once the fuselage halves are joined, and a lens fitted and glazed after painting the model. The 'mistake' can easily be filled and blended in.
PIC 2. shows the second f*** up, where the shoulder straps of the seat harness are too wide, and the adjusters out of line! These are made from metal foil, so I'll remove them and make and fit another set. Also shown in this pic is the radio rack and radio, deliberately mounted 'back to front', in order to move it aft, to leave space for the second camera, which was mounted immediately behind the pilots bulkhead frame, facing obliquely to port. The camera will be scratch-built from plastic tube and sheet, and fitted next. The other items in this pic are the cockpit side frames, which I discovered needed a bit of trimming in order to align with the cockpit assembly. It's going to be very important to ensure that all internal fittings are aligned accurately, to avoid problems when the fuselage halves are joined, as there are no locating pins on the major parts. Those of you building ICM kits at the moment, or those intending to, make sure you constantly test-fit as you go along - the parts should fit in theory, but in practice it can, and probably will, be different!
One thing which did turn out as planned, more or less, was the 'plywood' flooring, covering the curve of the Mk1 'floor', which was, in fact, the upper section of the wing centre section. This was cut from plastic sheet, glued in place, and suitably painted, and the control column actuating rod to the elevators was shortened accordingly.
PICS 3 and 4 show the instrument panel in place. I did take some pics of this, but got the lighting wrong, as the 'dials' reflected everything and 'washed out' the details! Of course, I'd already fitted the darned thing by the time I came to edit the pics!
The next step is to make and fit the camera, after correcting the seat harness, then do some re-touching, before adding tabs of scrap plastic at strategic points along the edge of one fuselage half, to aid in joining both halves together. Once that's done, it's time for the wings, probably some filling and sanding, then concentrate on the bits and pieces before the first painting stage.
Thanks for your interest, and I should have some more pics soon.