Thanks Kevin. I don't think I'm going to add a lot of anal detail to this one as I went all out on my other Tamiya Mossie a few years back. But I will add some where it's an obvious need, at least to me.
OK, so it's time for the surgery to get the resin Merlins on. I first glued the wing halves together after first adding the landing light lenses, which insert from the inside. The next step was then to saw away the upper cowl that extends from the upper wing half.
Dry fit after sawing off the cowl - pretty good.
However, a couple of things need taking care of elsewhere. In the pic below, I found that the large block inside the casting (yellow arrow) fouled the front edge of the wheel well so I had to remove it with some nippers. Secondly, whereas one side of the cowl lines up nicely with the nacelle groove, the other side seems to have shrunk inwards, creating a 2mm gap that will require a spacer to push the wall out.
I went ahead and glued the top of the cowl and the side that fit using CA gel and then added a cut piece of sprue to push the other wall out. The nacelle was then glued in place.
Checking the fit at the sides, the outer seam looks pretty good, though it's not yet glued.
The inner one, not so much. I can actually close it with mild pressure but I didn't want to fiddle with it anymore tonight.
I'll need to pick up some thin CA tomorrow while I'm out so that I can run it in the seams that aren't yet glued. I'll fuss with the above fits when I'm next back at the bench. Thanks for looking in.