Not much to show yet (I am progressing though!) but I stumbled upon a new hurdle. Not sure why, but Tamiya decided to mould the canopy closed. As I will be using the 3D printed Quinta cockpit decals, it would be a shame to hide them under a closed canopy.

As yo can see, the sliding part of the canopy is partially covering the fixed portion of the canopy. I am toying with an idea of cutting the canopy with a razor saw but by doing that I would cause myself a bunch of additional work - Creating additional frame for the fixed portion (which is now obscured) and almost certainly thinning the canopies so the front could slide over the rear. I think while it would look great in the end, the risk of damaging the clear parts would be too high to do that.

At least the clear parts are crystal clear, as you can see, so there's some hope the cockpit will at least partially be seen through the openings 🙂

That's what I like about this "combo" build, John (@johnb), is that someone hits a place in the build that requires caution and tells the others about it. I suspect you would have realized that you needed to leave the actuating rods off until after painting on your own, as I should have. I created a lot of work for myself.

Be careful about cutting the canopy, Sebastijan (@inflames). Part of the forward sliding canopy, and part of the rear sliding canopy, actually overlap the fixed or non-movable part of the canopy. As it is, if you cut them apart, the center non-moving portion will be shorter than it is supposed to be. You may also have trouble getting the sliding portions to go over the center portion without doing some scary surgery. The Accurate Miniatures canopy is already in sections and allows the sliding portions to fit over the fixed section (sort of). I used the Quinta 3-D cockpit stuff for my cockpit, and it worked well, even though it was designed for the Zvezda kit. I did have some trouble getting some of the parts to stick and ended up using superglue to tack them down. Looking forward to your cockpit, Sebastijan.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Did mask the canopy parts of the Revell kit. Had to create the masks myself using masking tape.
The Revell kit consists of 3 clear parts.

@johnb and @inflames: I think we have all come to the same conclusions about the canopies. The option for an open canopy is one of the pluses of the Accurate Miniatures kit. I don't think anyone makes a vacuform replacement canopy, either. I had trouble with the Quinta seatbelts also, except my problem was that they wouldn't stick. I tried putting superglue down first, as suggested in the instructions, but they still kept moving all over the place as I tried to get them to lay down. I finally got them glued down and they seem pretty sturdy now. Nice work Sebastijan saving your seatbelts. Looking forward to seeing your rivets on this plane. Cheers everyone.

Perfect painting results, my friend @gblair! Stripes turned out great, as well!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). I am usually pretty good about planning my builds, but there is something about this one that is short-circuiting the process. I should have left the masking on the rudder and elevators because they will stay light gray during the black over-spray. I also realized I don't need to apply a gloss layer yet, since the decals will go over the black layer. I don't know why my planning has gone out the window on this build, but I will be glad when it's over. :o)

I guess I can call the cockpit finished. Not much will be seen anyway.

Very nice Quinta panel

Small yet busy cockpit

Rear gunners position with my scratchbuilt rear bulkhead. The floor was covered with plywood and painted with dark grey and the paint got worn by gunners boots, so I took a small piece of balsa, cut it to shape, painted and sanded. I think it looks convincing enough.