The cockpit itself is quite nicely detailed but I think it may be a bit wide. The seat seems a lot wider than either Tamiya’s or Barracuda Studios’ excellent resin replacement and the canopy also seems to be a lot more bulbous in comparison. I may well be wrong here and the Mk.V may actually be different to the Mk.IX in this area but at the end of the day the difference is only minor and for me doesn’t detract from the general look of the model. This kit contains a decal for the instrument panel which isn’t great but is adequate as the canopy will be closed and there are some nice PE seat belts which are very welcome. With a bit of care and some careful painting the cockpit can be made to look very respectable. There is a fuel tank that sits between the engine and the instrument panel; this will never be seen and is quite superfluous, if anything it may cause fit issues when you close up the fuselage sides so I just left it out. With the engine and cockpit completed and correctly placed in one side of the fuselage the other side was joined to it. I`m glad to say the fit is excellent with no filler being required along any of the seams.
The wings were approached next. These have cannons and machine guns along with their appropriate ammunition feeds that go inside. The idea here is the gun panels are made of clear plastic and you can see the weapons through them inside the wings – personally I think it is very gimmicky so these will be painted over on this build.
