Back at this one, finally. Part of it was just life but also I was waiting for an order of some brass that arrived incomplete anyways.
I got the cockpit put together. The directions for the photoetch would have you sawing the kit head rest off and adding it to the photoetch seat. I just couldn't see how that was going to work. So I used epoxy putty to make the headrest. It looks a bit lumpy in close up photos but at normal eye distances it looks alright. I also made a parachute? life raft? for the seat bottom, as per one of my references photos. I also used some of the brass that did show up to improvise a sheet metal brake and bend some brass reinforcement stringers for the back of the headrest.
I couldn't get the completed cockpit to set right in the fuselage. It wouldn't stay where I wanted it and when it did, I saw it was sitting too low; the seat should sit higher out of the cockpit. So I used a brass strip to make a sort of spring to keep the seat shoved up closer to where I wanted it. Even so, it still sits lower than I think it should but it's the most I can do with it.
I did some minor re-shaping of the PE armor plate as it was too squared off. Also, there's an inaccuracy somewhere in the dimensions because there should be more room between the seat and the armor plate that I was going to fill up with details using square tube that didn't arrive.
So at least it looks like an airplane now. I'll add some detail to deck aft of the armor plate, and I managed to lose the neat little gunsight that was in the photoetch kit, so I'll have to put something together for that. After that, I can start priming, sanding, and painting.