Tamiya 1/48 F-15C -- things to watch out for during assembly

Hello. Now building this kit. I’ve already made 2 major blunders.

The intakes: Granted, the design of the innards of this thing is really bad, but there is a step right inside the front of the intake. I didn’t take it out. (At least I painted the inside of the intake dark grey.)

The front of the intakes: The wedge-shaped front part is a separate assembly. The instructions tell me to glue the wedge-shapes onto the front of the lower fuselage half, BEFORE gluing the upper. This is a major mistake, as the seam on the nose of the plane goes behind the side of the intake facing the nose, and it will be impossible to fill and sand that whole seam now!!! Darn!!! This problem area is all too visible.

The gun port has a seam inside it. Best to fill it too.

Any other things to worry about? I’ve made too many mistakes already.

This kit is now officially the WORST-FITTING kit I have ever had the misfortune of assembling. I’ve built old Academy kits with better fit than this.

This is not one of Tamiya’s stellar kits. I believe it’s pretty old. The worst fit is the intakes inside and out. I found the rest of it builds up into a good F-15C…not near as good as Revellogram F-15E though.