That's more or less what I was thinking Andy, although I may not need the reinforcement, but I'll decide when I test fit the completed model, before painting, to check the balance, and the effect of the weight on the arm.
A slot has now been drilled, cut and filed, and chamfered at the front edge in order to avoid a nose-down attitude when the model is mounted.
The arm of the stand has been test-fitted, to determine how far inside it needs to go for best balance, and fortunately the resin on this part is quite thick, around 5 mm, providing good rigidity.
Then the centre section was dry-fitted to the fuselage, and the stand tested again, and so far all seems well.
Holes for the fuel fillers have been drilled into the wing root fillets on each side, but have yet to be enlarged slightly, and the filler tubes and caps made and fitted.
Work has started on sanding the nose area to the correct contours, and is almost complete.
Pics below show the work on the stand so far, along with the fuel filler holes, and a couple of pics of the fuel fillers on the real aircraft.
it's been a bit of a busy day, dashing about here and there (in my car, not on my scooter !), and it's actually stopped raining, with sunshine and quite warm, so I'm going to take advantage of that, before it starts p*ss*ng down again tomorrow, and go to the pub for an hour or two, after some grub.
I should get the nose sanding completed tomorrow, all being well, and I'll post another up-date then.