It's been a bit of a mud wrestling match but the worst, or at least most difficult part, is done! I can now do some touch ups, some weathering, and get the final bits like the guns and step on and then mount the wing.
It took seemingly dozens of dry fits and small adjustments to get the brass "V" strut support and the longer rear wing support strut to all fit together. After a good six hours of effort it all came together, the only damage being a small hole on each side of the wing undersurface where the location for the pins had to be relocated. An easy cosmetic fix will solve that problem. Here's a shot of the assembly dry fitted and "posed".
The lower (top of the photo) pin on the rear strut will be CA'ed to the base of the rear landing gear strut when installed.
Following are a few close ups of the dry fitted components:
The three strut front wing attachment was then CA'd to the fuselage permanently using the Jig. It looks a little rough at this point however some filling, cleaning up, and a finish coat of paint should bring it all together. Once the last of the parts are on and the weathering completed the wing can be installed on the pins and the rear single spar attached as well.
I'll admit to having to "walk away" from this one more then once by this point of the Build. I'm afraid a couple of very flimsy struts and basically "butt" joints do not a good model make! Using the Pheon Jig supplied with the Decal Set saved the day. I think obviously the assembly would/could have been much easier just using the kit struts but it would have been far flimsier then my nerves could tolerate. Hopefully I can get the rest completed without breaking the strut assemblies, fingers crossed!
Cheers,
Lance
