WARNING ! Those of a nervous disposition are advised not to proceed further, and viewing of the images is strictly at the risk/discretion of the individual. No responsibility will be accepted for heart failure, injury caused through excessive laughter, or indictment for the use of abusive language!!!
Although the kit parts look good, and would appear to promise a nice model, this kit is an abortion!!!
Over the years, I've read or heard tales of the tricky to difficult job of joining the fuselage halves, and consoled myself with the fact that my example didn't appear to be too badly warped, and that almost fifty years of modelling experience should overcome such a minor problem.
However, I didn't account for the fact that the fuselage halves are made of a substance other than plastic, very possibly being Teflon, as they refuse to stick!
The use of polystyrene tube, liquid gel, and liquid cement has no effect whatsoever, and Plastic Weld just slinks away in fits of laughter. Resorting to desperate measures, I turned to Superglue as a 'save all' to at least hold key points whilst cement could be added to selected stretches of the joints, only to find that this material from another world repels the stuff faster than Jan downing a pint of Guinness on a hot day after a week of his pub being closed!!
Not wishing to admit defeat, I uttered a restrained 'Oh Dear', or something...er... similar, and persevered. After about an hour, I was able to join the nose section from the tip of the radome to the joint where the air-intake tubes locate, holding it tightly with tape until set, and accepting that the uneven joint would require sanding, filing and probably some filler later.
My plan of adding strips of plastic to aid in alignment quickly went to rat poo due to the inability of the plastic to remain stuck to the fuselage half, and I quickly discovered that the very small number of tiny, virtually ineffective locating pins would not align with their corresponding holes. So, having removed these, and sanded the mating faces of the joints in an effort to provide a 'key', I proceeded further, working in stages towards the aft end, and, after another hour, was able to achieve some semblance of a joint at the leading edges of the wing roots.
It was then that I discovered that the top half of the fuselage is 'out' by a little over 1 mm along its entire length, being longer from the wing leading edge to the opening for the speed brake at the tail!
So after almost three hours of struggle, a complete new dictionary of curses, and some calming coffee and cigarettes, I now have the fuselage joined, in a fashion, at the forward section, the leading edges of the stub wings, and one small length of the rear, starboard fuselage, the latter joint being highly suspect.
Oh, and there is now a new surface texture to the exterior, which I've dubbed 'Terra Cementus', which consists of various patina of mixed cements and glues, and resembles a rather barren, if rough, bleak landscape.
Thre's no particular order to the pics, taken during breaks to draw a deep breath, but they'll give an idea of what a shambles this job is so far.
Now, I'm going to the pub - I bl**dy deserve a pint, or several!!!