Had I just bashed mine together as it came, as any neophyte or hap hazzard builder would do, I'd say the same thing. However, that is not the case. All of my builds have no gaps at any of the joints. Everything is filled with wood, trimmed, shimmed or adjusted for a perfect fit as required. There is glue only between parts where they make contact with each other - no blobs and no useless fillets which add only weight and no strength.

A perfect example of the screwball instruction sequence concerns the landing gear wood mounting plate installation. The instructions have you build the formers and lower fuselage below the flat floor prior to installing this plate. Why not do it prior to this so that you can clamp it in place and ensure a proper, perfect fit in total contact with the floor? It will pay off in the long run to do a superior installation.

Given the amount of extra work this kit took to make all that happen as a result of the level of production standard, it was a very long, tedious process which went well beyond the satisfaction generated by a plane well built. The ultimate payoff though is that my models last for many years without any maintenace to the airframes. They never pop apart on landing as so many BARFs do.

Overall I would rate it is as the typical mass market, low grade product which I have experienced from Great Planes. If it were of a higher calibre, undoubtedly it would also cost considerably more and that would put it into a different market segment with many fewer potential sales. And that's not where GP is positioned. This is like a Yugo compared to a... well, just about anything other autmobile which is upmarket. As long as you are aware of that and find that acceptable, no problem. You'll be in hog heaven.