The state of play at the point where I'm calling it quits for today:
The cockpit module is a single piece. I have a much nicer resin ejection seat lying around, but to fit it would involve loss of the cockpit tub and a complete scratchbuild of the interior, which risks a DNF. The pilot figure isn't all that great either, but should be sufficient to create a busy interior and hide the lack of seat detail. As expected, instruments are provided as decals.
The main fuselage and the gun pod halves are joined. Fit is pretty good, but that won't prevent some work along the spine, and probably some panel line restoration, since the (otherwise lovely) very fine lines will probably be wiped out by the slightest sanding.
I've made a start at filling in the trenches of the Sidewinder locator tabs; they make it easy to get the missiles on correctly, but it never looks good to me, so I prefer filling them and lining up the missiles by hand.
This is one of those kits that's actually dirt cheap in it's home country; HLJ sells them for 720 yen, or just shy of 6 euro, in other words pocket money levels. Getting them half way across the planet adds obvious costs, but Japanese kids at least have access to good, affordable kits.
