Latest progress. I mentioned it in one of my other build threads, but this one will be done in the RAF all-white anti-flash colors complete with the pale roundel markings. Already have the decals, the old 1/144 Welsh V-bomber vacuform kits.
This kit has so far required a minimum of putty-fooing. It really comes together fairly nicely. My biggest complaint at this stage is that the main landing gear wells are boxes that fit inside one half of the fuselage. When you glue them in and then attach the other half of the fuselage, there's just no damn way I could think of to get them to line up and you get this hideous gap on one side of the main landing gear wells. A better way of engineering that part of the kit would have been to have the wheel wells insert into the fuselage after the halves were joined and then sand away the excess bit projecting beyond the fuselage mould line. I suppose the way Academy has done it has its advantages if you wanted to build the kit wheels up, but I had to putty-foo the *INSIDE* of a 1/144 gear wheel. TWICE. Not pleased.
It's a damn good thing the rest of the kit comes together nicely. I do think the way the inboard engine pylons join the undersurface of the wing are a bit dogdy and may or may not require the magic of putty-foo. I also found I had to drill out the holes for the wing external tank pylons. They're there, you best drill them out from the inside outward before jointing the top and bottom wing halves because the location of the holes is easily seen on the inside of the lower wing halves.
The engine nacelles come together nicely. Just a bit of sanding to knock off any overlap but no filler needed on any of them. I did a dry fit on the engine nacelles to the pylons and it's a good fit with no issues forseen when it comes time to glue them into place. Once I get the wing and fuselage together, it'll be time to a shot of primer to see where I need to do some touch up work before painting.
Luckily masking the canopy should be easy and it's really one exterior color. White! But I have a few ideas in the works that might add some subtle variations in the panels, etc.