I know this kit: There are indeed problems, but it felt very sound on the
outside symmetry of the big components. They also fit together rather well despite the lack of locating pins, including the wheel well components. The wings felt very strong despite the simple butt-join... Though they look a bit simple, the parts do the job of boxing-in the wells, leading edge intakes, and setting the correct gear angle consistently, the same with the prop blade pitch as well...
The cockpit parts are indeed very averse to getting things together, and I found this, like you, incredibly pronounced on the cockpit side consoles, where it pays to do a huge amount of carving.... The fuselage is the exact correct lenght of 22 m., but looks slightly too deep; don't let that bother you, as there is nothing to be done about it...
MPM's He-177 exhibits much better symmetry, and thus basic workmanship, than the similar-sized B-29 monster by Monogram: That took several kits to straighten out, and is the worst symmetry nightmare I ever stumbled through... (Note: ALL of the following is inherent to the Monogram B-29 moulds, and not peculiar to one pressing. None of these problems exist on their B-17G):
One of the many failed build attempts:
Heavy use of pliers finally fixed the kit #5 or 6(?) front end's mismatching nose curves, but only with the tail of the kit #6 or 7(?) did I finally manage to make the "mystery crooked" tail marginally straight...:
Tail is 1 foot short (6 mm), and tailgunner doghouse 2 mm too long, so when the doghouse is shortened, at the in-between edge of its bigger side window, adding the separate tail helps adding the now missing 8 mm....
Nose cone is off-center, cockpit opening rotated clockwise from true, fin incurably tilted with base off-center, and tail taper out-of-round creating strange assymetrical taper transition bulges, when looking towards the rear....:
Nose radiuses symmetry fixed (note stress marks):
Mystery tail assymetry: Veers to the same side, even when seen from either the top or the bottom!!!! I somehow fixed it with a 7th kit tail, not understanding anything about anything...:
I assure you I spotted none of these horrors on the He-177: The MPM plastic is pleasant to work with, and makes for a stout rigid model despite the size. Even the angled gear legs don't really need to be strengthened from what I remember.
I don't think the tilted cockpit will be noticeable through the many painted frames.
Your work is going very well, and I am eager to see it finished...
Gaston
P.S. I just thought this similar-looking kit might be of interest... Sorry for the long disgression...