Yes it's fitting together really well Gary, much better than their Harrier that I'm also wrestling with at the minute!
More work today, including a tiny bit of etch for the radio mast. Thank goodness Tamiya included two on the fret as the first one leapt into orbit. They must have known...
After some minor fettling of the joints I gave the whole thing a coat of primer. Some of the parts on the underside are blu-tacked in place as they are supposed to go on after the main landing gear. That's another great piece of engineering as both main legs are moulded as one piece to give them more strength and ensure correct alignment. The "cross brace" runs inside the wing, underneath some of those panels. When dry fitted the joints were seamless, but the blu-tack has lifted them slightly so you may be able to work out which pieces are separate.
The instructions would have you fit the gear much earlier in the process but I thought this way would be easier for paint & masking.
I gave the primer about an hour to dry, it had a quick swipe over to remove the fluff and small insects, then started adding the Sky. There are probably around 10 light coats here, some marbled, some highlighting details or the middle of panels, then a few overall to blend it all together. I had to play around with the picture as my poor camera work once again bleached out all of the variation, but I think it's now a good representation of what it looks like IRL.
