Update:
despite the paint damage and many problems during the last update, i have managed to save it from the garbage can.
3 days ago, i fitted on the tailplanes and the nosecone. she is really getting that retro SABENA look.
over the last 2 days i have mostly been working on the last sub-assembly's, mostly paintwork and assembly of the landing gear.
the propellors are currently ungoing paintwork, with 3/4 blades now in grey. spinners have been painted in a light silver.
last night, the landing gear struts have been fitted, with no problems.
although i did hit one snagg last night, with the white circles on the tails, ive used white decalfilm to avoid the messy paintwork and to save time. however, as there was no gloss coating sprayed on the paper, it started to stretch and curling up (very thing film indeed), i had to remove them and cut them out again, luckily one of my last aliexpress purchases was a circle-cutter, i had to cut out and re-apply new circles
5 times before i got the application right, the large size made it quite difficult to apply.
all in all, in the end, the results were satisfactory.