OK I've been a complete wally, have spent ages on a nice 3 colour paint scheme on 2 halftracks (1 AFV Club, t'other Dragon). Now it's getting time to put the top hull parts on & guess what, neither fit! As in daylight clearly visible all round, the Dragon one is particularly bad, as of course the hull bottom is in 3 parts on these, also have big gap above the back doors. I know I should have checked & addressed this before I painted, but has any one got any good tips for overcoming this problem without destroying the paint job? It looks like it's back to the old Airfix days where aircraft fuselages had to be held together with tape & rubber bands while you strained the halves into position!!!
Never had this problem with Tamiya BTW.

On the Dragon 251 the only thing that will stop the hull halves mating will be the forward bulkhead including the dash. Try shaving some off the top of this. If this doesn't help then it's probably the alignment of the floor on the hull base. If this is the case, you'll probably have to try and remove it and re-centre, or shave some off the floor along one of the sides. I hope this helps.

Vinnie

Thanks for that Vinnie. In the light of what you said, ie that the Dragon one should fit well, I took another closer look at it. The dash doesn't appear to be the problem, part of it was that I'd glued the doors on at the back (I didn't consider the hinges looked robust enough to try having them as opening), to make the painting easier. The back plate in my kit looks a bit warped (it's very thin, because of the door cut-outs), so the hinges didn't line up with the hull top. Once I'd snipped the pivots off the top it fitted much better. I think I'll have to join them with Superglue & hold on!