I uploaded a few pictures to my gallery of early assemblies. I've probably spent way too much time working on the interior and realizing I can't do the dials & switches justice. No idea yet how much will be visible once the windows are in-place. If someone wants to detail the interior and have the doors open, the kit has a lot of good parts to work with.

More issues with the PE - there are no graphics or diagrams to show how to bend it. A couple examples - PE-A16 (step 9) goes inside the cab, but all it shows is where to place it. A quick look at the piece shows three places to bend. Another example - PE-A4 (step 11). Those are hinges connecting the engine exhaust screens to the louvers. Again, no guide on how to bend. If you look at those in later assemblies, the shape shown does not match the pictures of the real thing. On the positive side, the fit for most of the pieces is very good. Also, a lot of pieces on the hull are keyed so you'll have to work hard to put them in improperly.

Mine arrived in the mail this week. I`ll be keeping this thread book-marked for when I get to building my own! Thanks for the updates!

Proceeding slowly on this build. As I said in an earlier post, the engineering is pretty good on most pieces, tolerances are very tight. I was working on assembly 19 (cradles that hold the missile canisters) last night. Looks like Trumpeter took a shortcut here. The angular pieces that reinforce the cradles have fronts/backs, but Trumpeter has you use the same pieces for both sets of cradles, so some face forward and some face backward. If you're building it in travel mode, that'll be hidden between the hull and the canisters. But, if you're building for firing position (I am), then it's obvious. I'm also not thrilled that the track links don't have pins (like they did on the SA-4). This is the same as they did with the SA-6 TEL several years ago. It was a real pain trying to get the tracks to lay as they should and still connect, whereas with the SA-4, you just assembled the track and strung it across like the real thing.

Hey Tim, would you mind taking a pic of the cradle parts you describe? I'm curious how it looks. I'll be doing mine in the firing position as well (How could anyone want to do otherwise??). Do you have pics of the work in progress overall?

they fit better in the shelf in the display cabinet with the missiles in transport mode / Robin

I don't have any pics right now, but the pieces I'm referring to are YF1, YF15, and YF24. Ref the display case issue for firing position, I'm likely going to have to find a new place for a Perfect Grade Gundam to open a spot with the height needed to have the canisters erected...and I'm thinking of having a missile partially out of the can as though being launched.

A few more observations as I get back to work on this kit after weeks of illness: 1: The missile canisters have 6 attachment points to the supports on the cradles. These would be great if the rods on the cradles were separate, but they aren't. You essentially have to "snap" the canister into place over the rods, with a high likelihood of breaking them. 2: The styrene the tracks are made of is soft, so cleaning up after cutting them from the sprue is not as easy as cleaning the other parts. Also, I'll repeat something I said in a previous post - I really wish Trumpeter would have used pins on these track links like they did on the SA-4. 3: The paint masks are great - they fit the windows exactly. 4: The radar mast and missile erector mechanisms are moveable if you follow the directions. The main distinction is which supports you use on the canister cradles. So, when mine is done, I can have everything stowed to move it around, then erect the canisters and mast to display in firing position. While everything is folded down, the canisters will be further aft than they should be for transport mode, but will be correct for firing position. A small price to pay to have it safely stowed for moving around before display (IMHO).

Pretty much finished up, will have some pics probably later today. Another error in the instructions - the length called out for the wire cables is wrong. It calls for 85mm, they need to be 95mm. So, I measured twice, cut once, and came up 10mm short because I used the instructions, not actually measuring on the kit. **edit** I uploaded 4 pics to my gallery, along with a group shot of this SA-12/23 with Trumpeter's SA-4 and SA-6..