Thanks Evan.
I'm happy to say that the entire nose is now assembled, and just needs a little 'tweaking' and tidying up.
PIC 1. Spaced mounts for the exhausts were glued inside the lower cowling, using scraps of plastic card.
PICS 2 and 3. The exhausts first had the locating pins removed from their inner faces, and were then cemented to the mounts, ensuring the correct ones were fitted to the correct sides! I had intended drilling-out the exhaust ports, but there wasn't much room for error, their being relatively thin, and the plastic being soft, so I didn't bother.
PICS 4 and 5. The exhaust shields in place, ensuring again the correct ones are placed on the correct side. The curved-down outer edge of the port shield had some annoying sprue attachment points to remove, the remains of which can be seen here, but will have a further light sanding when fully set.
PIC 6. The port engine cowl in place, but with the machine gun yet to be fitted. The cowl was cemented in place, and then the forward cowling pressed back on to it, and a thin bead of 'Superglue' run into the joint on the inside, to ensure it all lined up properly.
PIC 7. The barrels were cut off the kit MG17s, and cemented to the inside of each cowling half, ensuring that the correct one was used for each side, and that the blast tube trough extensions on the muzzles lined up with the cowling troughs.
PICS 8 and 9. Both engine cowlings in place and cemented, and awaiting clean-up and attention to any gaps. The starboard cowl needed a tiny amount of sanding on the lower, rear section, in order for it to 'sit' down onto the lower panel. The tiny gap along the upper central joint is deliberate, as I intend to add a thin length of stretched sprue here, to simulate the piano hinge.
So, no major drama, and fitting the cowls without the engine assembly can be done, with little trouble, if care is exercised.
Next stage is to clean up and attend to all the joints, then fit the supercharger intake, before moving on to the radiators, flaps and slats.
Thanks again for your interest and support, and I'll post another up-date soon.