Hobby Boss / Trumpeter make a lot of cool kits .
"
Building this mashup like it would really be done. "
haha , it wouldn't be done this way .
I get what you're saying but this thing has some deleterious CG issues .
I considered keeping it a tail dragger but I didn't like the visual of having a protrusion for retractable tail gear . really tall tail gear too .
Wanted to move the engine much farther forward but the main landing gear well pushed it up too high and the front nose gear well interfered with the intake ,, and then all that put the cockpit tub into not really fitting anywhere that was sane .
I did consider that the curvalicious intake would be fabricated in fiberglass , negating panel lines .
I assume it would be left unpainted to avoid FOD .
but , that would add much more weight than aluminum and I was really liking the idea of panel lines in there .
I now have a plan to easily and accurately scribe the longitudinal joints inside .
One easy jig and I'll need to make only one cutting tool .
Last night I securely mounted the tail to
Mr Plywood Scrap so it sits level and plumb to facilitate installing the horizontal stabs dead-nut square and in plane :
It gets the 262 stabilizers ,
Just roughed out and sitting there to show the position .