Lindsey,
It's a badly engineered kit. I bought this kit because my dad very likely saw these things fly overhead, when he was a 7 year old. That is, before the japanese locked him up in a camp.
Cowl is separated from the fuselage halves. It tried to fix the cowls halves to each individual fuselage half first, before closing the fuselage completely.
The fit of the fuselage was poor, and due to its minimal contact area, the cowl snapped off.
I tried reinforcing strips on the inside, but hey hey, whadduyuno. That's where the bulkhead is. IIRC instrument panel was too large for the cockpit.
Don't even start about the fuselage wing joint (i dry fitted). It isn't there.
There is a reason why you don't see many built-up fotos of this plane.
MBB