And now all the major parts are glued together. 

There's a fair amount of PSR needed on that starboard wing-fuselage joint, but it's firmly stuck in position now, thank goodness.



After that it's the part I'm dreading, gluing in the main landing gear assemblies. With them sticking out underneath I'll have to be very careful with it, and then I have to glue the overwing 'hatches' in place before yet MORE PSR I'm sure.

Looking the part now Kit 

Fantastic build, and I wonder at your stamina in fighting against all adversity. 

That's the brid right there..love it and it's balanced beautifully.
Is the landing gear like that of the He-177 or one leg in each engine nacelle like ..umm it's the Ju-290 I think 🤔.

Coming right along. 

Quote from: Wardukw on December 25, 2024, 11:17:04 PMIs the landing gear like that of the He-177 or one leg in each engine nacelle like ..umm it's the Ju-290 I think 🤔.

It's got one single leg sprouting from each of the two inboard engine nacelles, with two wheels on each leg. I may be installing them tomorrow and I'll post some pics.

Quote from: Wardukw on December 25, 2024, 11:17:04 PMThat's the brid right there..love it and it's balanced beautifully.
Is the landing gear like that of the He-177 or one leg in each engine nacelle like ..umm it's the Ju-290 I think 🤔.

No it was a very clever and complex folding arrangement that never really worked properly despite Junkers best efforts.

I've managed the job I'd been dreading on this build, sort of...................

Getting the main landing gear legs in place is a right faff of a job, squeezing them through those 'hatches' in the upper wings. I couldn't make the 'hatches' any larger as it would mean cutting away some of the locating parts for the legs themselves, so they are what they are.

Here's the starboard glued leg in place.



And the underside view shows how complex a leg it is, as Lee said it was SO complex it didn't actually work all that well and the Ju 288 crashed a number of times with failed landing gear.

But of course they solved all the problems for the 588s. 



And this shows the drama of fiddling the port one into place!



The BAD news is they are different lengths!    One is almost 4 mm longer than the other, and they're both twisted in the vertical axis, so once they're set I'll be sawing both the actual legs off, shortening one and twisting them both straight to re-assemble them with fuse wire strengtheners.

With a bit of fiddling and a bit of packing I've managed to 'adjust' the height of the main gear legs so they're almost level now. It was the position of the supports that was wrong, not the legs themselves. A bit of judicious filing on the bottom of the tyres should sort that out. 

I've glued the 'hatches' back in place now, and with some packing, and yet more PSR of course, it should be ready for some paint soon.

Good save and a useful technique for addressing how to get them installed.

It was because of the bizarre way they were designed to fit the 288 kit.

They were sandwiched between the two halves of the engine nacelles, and they'd have been sticking out there all the time you were building the rest of the kit and just asking to be snapped off! Crazy. 

They're still doing it - the Italeri Invader has the nose wheel doors as part of the nose gear bay moulding and they have you install them before joining the fuselage halves... ideally placed to be knocked off repeatedly during construction...

Revell's 1/144 airliner nosewheels are all the same, it's just madness, and in the airliner's case it's so easy to leave the nosewheels off till later with just one small mod.

Yeah, you should be able to simply slot them into place as part of the final detailing.
I remember I modified the Airfix Bronco main leg locations, so I could do just that. Though, per usual, I still haven't actually built the thing...