Well... Wings and fuselage glued together !
Before that I sanded the putty applied for the wing tips and re-engraved the structure lines, I glued the exhausts with some plastic wedges inside, I glued the engine hood (upper).
The dihedral seems to be correct (IMHO )
Applause and amazement sounds!!!! I'm at about the same stage, too frustrated to take progress shots, and then I see this. You certainly are doing wonders with the kit. I'll probably, for the first time during a built, need to use a dusk mask when sanding down the amounts of filer that will be required. Again! Very Nice!!!
Thanks for the comments and the encouragements
Argh ! Big problem with the Ultracast resin lower cowl (for ICM kit), it's a "little" too short and too narrow towards the propeller spinner
It's impossible to use the ICM carburator air intake, too small for a Mk.IX, the shape seems to be for a Mk.I/V not for a Mk.IX.
So, I chose ICM/Eduard solution: ICM lower cowl with Eduard air intake. I need to add a hatch on the ICM part.
Airframe almost finished, the putty was sanded and structure lines re-engraved, some details added: fuel cooler intake on the port wing root leading edge and hole for the gun camera on the starboard side, gunsight added from the box but slightly affined and reinforcement bar behind the pilot's head added...
I noticed several Spitfire F. IXs from Norwegian Squadrons (specifically 331 & 332 Sqn) had only 2 MGs in the wings, not 4. So, my model will have only 2 MGs.
Next step will be the work on the vacuformed canopy, a bit tricky moment for me