I've been busy at work so not masses of progress, but here's where I'm at right now
Lots of the little subs put together, most of which are made up of several parts. That must be why the parts count is so high.
Painted inside the doors, engine covers etc, ready for them to be loosely mounted when I paint the exterior.
I think I've finished with the engines. I could keep adding more and more but realistically it'll hardly be seen, even with the covers open, so I'll leave that kind of thing for a larger scale. Also got the canopy fitted, which was an absolute pain as it's also in several pieces. "Doors" only temporarily mounted, will be displayed open. Weird green reflection is proof I have a bit of garden outside my shed
Managed to get a TET glue mark on the largest part of the canopy! With so many pieces that needed "persuading" to fit, there was no way I was going to sit there for hours waiting for canopy glue to harden so used a drop or two of extra thin to secure it. Of course it decided to wick up my thumb and left a huge print
After much sanding, right up to 6000 grit, it looks a whole load better. It's just a bit dull but should hopefully polish up fine. You can see what's left of the print around the front frame of the rear canopy, but I reckon that will hide a bit more if I go slightly onto the "glass" when I paint the frame.
A little bit more sanding and some panel lines to rescribe then it should be ready for primer & paint. Of course the big decision now is what to fit and what to leave off for that process.
Getting in and around the main winglets will be a nightmare if I fit them now, and the rear elevators only have a tiny mounting point for their size so I just know they'll get knocked off! It'll probably end up as some kind of hybrid, painting the main colours first then adding more parts before finishing off, but stay tuned and we'll see what happens