Welcome aboard Firechief. On mine, I built the rear cage separatly, making sure it was squared up. I then proceded to build the forward fuselage , painted it and the wings, then decaled. My struts are painted awaiting the time to put the above advise into action. I will then rig as much as possible the forward assembly, then attach the cage and finish rigging.
Des has a rigging tutorial as well as other tips on his main site. We micro-scale fanatics have to adapt our methods a little from the larger scale builds though. (Unless you have eyes like a microscope and hands like a neurosurgeon, which I don't.)
For rigging into the fuselage I drill a tiny hole and insert fishing line, 2 or 4 # test, and secure with a drop of superglue. On stuts I carefully tie a slip knot and secure with glue and carefully pull taunt and repeat the method on the other strut. Work outward towards the wingtip.
There are some other 1/72 scale builders on here that have mastered rigging in the small scale. Hopefully one of them can jump in, or peruse the under construction builds for 1/72 projects.