Thanks, guys. I'm forging ahead with this because it's still wet out, but I think I'll be able to work on the garage the next several days so production will slow down some on this.
John, the strips of plastic had sufficient clearance, but did not uniformly contact the upper wing skin, so I ended up scribing lines where the strips needed to be using my patterns. I taped the wing halves together and fitted and glued the strips. I made a plate to simulate whatever shape is above where the wheels go and cut away the strips in that area. There is a strip that runs perpendicular at the trunnion end of the well and I puzzled for awhile about how to do that. I didn't want to do it in short strips as I didn't see how I could keep them all straight with my shaky hands. I finally used a JLC saw after the first strips were pretty well glued, and cut a slot for the long perpendicular piece to fit in. I made somewhat of a glue mess while attaching all the strips so I flooded in a bunch of Mr Surfacer to smooth things up some. The wells have to be painted aluminum so roughness will show up. Hope it's not too noticeable.
The next task is to do something to make the landing gear legs more interesting. Sink marks abound! Hobbycraft didn't work very hard on them and they look pretty simple, while the real thing was certainly not.
A little more progress. Looks like there will be some work to do getting the tailpipe to match the fuselage, but the wings and the turtledeck fit pretty well.
Don't worry, I stocked up on white paint recently!
"Surely I have made my meaning plain? I intend to avenge myself upon you, Admiral. I have deprived your ship of power, and when I swing 'round, I intend to deprive you of your life."