Thanks all.
The rain arrived, with extra bonus rain from everywhere in the World ( as if we haven't had enough over the last two weeks !) so I binned the pub idea, and did a bit more on the fuselage joints.
The two halves are now fully joined, with the seams filled with CA and sanded back. The remaining larger gaps under the nose have been filled with plastic card and CA, and again, sanded smooth. Some extra filler will possibly be needed here and there, but I'll check all the joint seams by applying a thin coat of matt white enamel, after first completing work on the joints at the extreme nose area.
These will be treated with "Milliput", but I'll wait until the canopy clear part has been attached, as it's sure to need blending-in with "Milliput" too.
I'm not too concerned with what at first sight looks to be a horrendous joint on the underside of the nose, or the plastic-filled area behind the wheel bay, as some scratch-built additions will be fitted here.
A large, powerful lamp was mounted under the nose, offset to starboard, as shown in the pic below, and I'll have to make and attach this, blending-in the fairing using "Milliput" again. The fairing extended onto the starboard wheel well door, so the kit's white metal doors need to be adapted to fit in the closed position first (why the doors are provided in white metal is a bit of a puzzle, because the kit's main gear doors are nicely produced in resin).
The nose wheel ram on the real aircraft did not retract into the wheel bay, but lay flush against the fuselage skin externally (arrowed in pic below), therefore once the doors are fitted, and the gap behind the bay finished off, the ram will be made and attached.
So, next task is to mask the canopy, before removing a rather substantial tab from the front. Experience with the previous Andover build showed that this was a real pain to remove, without damaging the canopy part, and I eventually resorted to using the power multi-tool to grind away the resin, one of the very few times I've used this for modelling purposes.
With the tab removed and the masking done, the internal window frames will be painted matt black, before
very carefully aligning and attaching the canopy part, hoping that a good, clean joint can be achieved, with minimal filler.
Pics below tell the story so far and note that the dark lines of the fuselage joints are where CA was used to fill the minimal gaps, and has dried clear - the joints themselves are firm and close, but the shape of the resin edges causes a hair-line "trough".
All being well, I'll be back some time tomorrow with another up-date.