No excuses, poor QC, you would not see this on a Tamiya or japanese kit, no pride taken on the manufacturing of this kit and many others. Yes, I also feel good when I make an imperfect model look good but there is just no excuse for this :cry: I will Alclad mine either way but these people are going to have to sacrifice quantity for quality and unfortunately America cares more about how many kits they can sell versus how well they can make them...........