Alfa Romeo Monza - Part 2

The engine block halves are painted and read to start accepting some of the accessories. This kit builds a bit different than today's "normal" kits.
It is a departure from normal building practices to fully finish each exterior side of the engine prior to putting the block together. I'm sure it could be built in a more traditional way with a little creative re-engineering, but since I'm building it in the spirit intended by the original designers, I'll continue to follow their lead. Now onto installing the crank, rods, pistons and cylinder sleeves...

The screws are plated brass and they are very low quality. Maybe I got a kit with a run of defective hardware, maybe they all came this way, but the attrition rate was over 50%. Some were malformed, the ones that passed visual inspection often sheared off just when they were too deep to remove, but not deep enough to do anything positive.
I've even tried testing them for strength beforehand by screwing them into some plastic with predrilled holes. Weeded a few out that broke, but I'm not sure if it further weakened the ones that "passed" or they just are not up to the task as the failure rate still stayed the same in final use.
Even reaming out the holes did not always help. Very fine line between tight enough for the threads to work and snapping the heads or shanks off.
Using soap on the threads did help a lot.
I found some other issues in the instructions too. Talk about ambiguity, in one section it gives two close ups of how to place the parts, but they are the opposite of each other. I now know why many of these kits never make it to completion, but I also understand how they work.