A lot of build vids will paint the panel lines black, so I went one further and did a black prime. I then painted the dark green around the cockpit because I'm going to have open canopy and door and I hope I can mask this area without the canopy in place. How does everyone deal with the little nubs where the parts are attached? I like the needle file first and a final swipe with sandpaper.
I'm going to have to up my impression of Eduard kits. The fit is fantastic but you really have to keep track of what you're doing. The little piece at the top has to be in place first, because the inner area (toward the inside of the wing) is wider then the outside. None of this is glued yet. The fit is so tight, you can't feel the joints.
There is a tiny raised lip on the lower wing, other kits have this area meet flush.
They offer two different gear doors, I can't see any difference but 7 and 10 are not used on this model. There are three cockpit door options (and three doors), closed, closed with open canopy and all open. They show you what to cut away for the closed canopy. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. There is an overlap on the real cockpit between the door and the canopy. Other kits don't bother to provide that 1 mil difference.
While the Tamiya fit and finish are excellent, Eduard offers just a little extra in options and detail at the cost of a more complex build. Now, I'm old enough to remember when kits came with raised markings and the "cockpit" was two halves of a pilot's head. Compared with them, today's kits, are so much better. Now I'm wondering where there is any place for improvement. There are already many tiny parts and the accuracy and fit seem near perfect.