Things are progressing pretty well... As can be seen above, the fuselage is split verticaly. The 'hump' and fin assembly is also split verticaly (though the fin is in one piece) and places itself over the back of the fuselage without any trouble. I used just a touch of Milliput epoxy putty to fill in a tiny little gap between the two assemblies right under the rudder, but this may well have been caused by myself and poor assembly technique instead of by poor design and poor fit of the parts. Indeed my previous work on the MF kit did not cause that particular problem...
The fuselage halves contain a separate 'bulkhead' / afterburner ring that is located quite deep inside the rear opening, with very little actually visible once the fuselage halves are joined. At the very front, the nose cose is also inserted prior assembly of the fuselage halves, though my previous efforts on the MF kit proved that with a touch of sanding down, the nose cose can be inserted at a later stage if need be. The fit is real tight in any case, and there is no fear of any 'see through' effect with this kit. The cockpit detail is provided by a number of well detailled parts, including floor (with integral seat or bottom part of the ejection seat), separate side walls, separate control stick, separate instrument panel and separate instrument panel cover, along with enough parts for two ejection seats 'backs'... Some two-seater in the making..?? Although PE sets are now available for this cockpit, the level of detail is adequate for the scale. Only seat belts are really missing in the offered parts, and those, in my eyes, will look better made of milliput strips, or even masking tape, than rigid PE parts. As can be seen from the pictures of my build, I've so far left off the back of the seat and the instrument panel cover, to make sure I can access all areas when painting this cockpit in the proper Soviet turquoise blue...
Also located inside the fuselage halves is a unit, made up of 4 parts, including two bulkheads, that close off the main landing gear wells. The level of detail in there is quite impressive, really, and the unit does a great job of 'furnishing' and closing off the openings. Well designed!
The wings are in one part with a big chunk of the fuselage underside. Fit is really good, with no filler needed anywhere. The proper slight dihedral of the wings is therefore easily achieved in a single 'click'. This leaves only a few areas of fuselage where a joint line remains visible. Light sanding down of those areas, and a little re-engraving work (7 panel lines, including 5 at the top of the fuselage, at most) give us the expected and desired finish. The elevators are added without any fuss. Although their locating holes are gaping holes in the rear fuselage and can be seen through the rear opening, once in place, the elevators close off the gaps properly and the locating tabs are too deep inside the fuselage opening to be seen. The kit offers a number of pylons for missiles, bombs and other tanks. I like my models 'clean', but for this build, I did add the three pylons for the three tanks. Only two underwing tanks are provided with each kit though, so the under-fuselage one, if required, must be taken from the other kit in the box. The pylons fit really well to the airframe. Tanks and missiles are all provided in one piece, and look like decent representation of the real things. Purists, if using those stores, may want to replace the fins with thinned plastic of metal sheeting. The pitot tubes are very delicate things, and the main probe at the very tip of the fuselage is provided twice with each kit, so messing one up is OK..! I left mine off the build for later addition, one the painting, decalling and weathering is done.
A coat of primer reveals no makor issues: