Thanks, Eric @airbum. I got a bit stuck on this one again when working with the clear parts. Basically the windscreen fits poorly and the way it joins with the fuselage through a streamlined fairing is not well represented.
Following photos online, I continued to build up the proper framing with 5 thou plastic card and liquid glue, taking weeks to get it to cure properly and smooth out with sanding. Doing this also made it look properly aligned with the whole fuselage.
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1. This tiny glue spot will disappear when the final canopy masking is done. The framing extends slightly beyond the edge of the white plastic and will cover it
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1. this is the main angle that needed so much more work - finally right!!
I also found that the canopy didn't line up properly with the windscreen in closed position. This might have been fine if displayed with the canopy open, but I wanted to close it temporarily for painting with liquid glue and have a good seal. I am also warning up to have this finally displayed with canopy closed, since the ejection seat is nicely visible anyway buttoned up. In any case, I had to reshape the edge of the canopy with more plastic card over the same time period. It looks good now, although note that the canopy is just resting in place without glue at this stage.
So, I finally got the result I wanted on clear parts fit. At this scale, further refinements are also possible by applying decal strips for canopy framing after painting (airbrushed the camo color). I did this very successfully with my Tamiya Mosquito and G4M Betty and the bigger SH Buffalo, all of which have lots of fine canopy framing that can chip off with a simple masking and painting process. Hope you like it so far, this is up there with my Skyhawk to get finished and so next in the spraybooth. Sorry, I realize this was partly documented already but I only got it finally right in the last 3 days.
