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Turns out the pilot's canopy was warped in a couple different directions so it's been a case of carefully glue one section at a time. Same with the centre part. After the right side dries, I took a closer look at the left and it was slightly worse than expected. With lots of gentle pressure, I got it in place. I used Tamiya Extra Thin Quick Set cement to expedite things. With that done, I got to the pilot's canopy. I dealt with the bulge on the side followed by the remaining sides. This went a bit faster. Here's a view of both side with everything aligned finally. So far anyways.

More canopy work. Here's the pilot's canopy. There's an internal frame to add. Once that had dried, I added the rearview mirrors. The straight bar on the internal frame is meant to mount to the ejection seat rails. It goes between the hooks on the top. After I got it in place, I fitted the fixed centre section. I glued one side first. The pilot's canopy will need some finessing to get into proper place. With the right side glued in the correct spot, the left side is a bit off. Once the right side dries, I'll have to carefully get this into place before committing to glue.

Amazing work Tom and fast too. I think I've managed a couple canopy bits in the same time frame.

Thanks Peter! The funny thing is, Jimmy got all excited by the fire trucks and lights and people we had to take him to an offleash park and let him run. So our original idea of a short walk ended up much longer. The front canopy was a perfect fit. In fact, when I dry fitted it, it popped in and was held in place by friction alone. The opening parts and the fixed centre section are a bit more vague though. They're going to need some careful fitting.

Interesting evening last night. Sue and I were out walking Jimmy, I'm getting texts from Martin when we come across a couple people looking at a house. There's a fire on the porch and at first, I'm thinking it's an odd and dangerous place for a fire bowl. Then I realize the folks watching are calling the fire dept. I look closer and realize there's no fire bowl but that a table is burning. I try to find a hose but nothing around. Sue sees that there's some people in the house next door so I bang on their door. A young woman opens the door and I ask if she has a hose as their neighbour's house is on fire. Her roommate hears this and runs to grab an extinguisher and hands it to me. At this point we all see there's a guy on the porch passed out drunk. How he didn't get burned I have no idea but he wakes up and gets out of there just in time. Using the extinguisher I got the fire out just as the fire department arrive. They made sure everything was safe and took our names down and thanked us. The homeowner did the same. Thankfully no one got hurt and we ended up with an eventful walk. So after all that, I got a bit of bench time in and removed the masks from the inside of the canopies. There's also a blast shield that goes behind the pilot's seat. I then added the HUD glass to the pilot's coaming. I then started on flying the clear bits on, starting with the canopy and the rearmost section. I also added the blast shield and the supports for it. There's a decent amount of detail in the kit OOB. It's unfortunate that some of it is let down by the inconsistency of the detail.

Peter, the plastic has a sort of spongy feel to it if that makes sense. It's like the clear plastic you find in kids toys which has some give to it rather than being hard.

It will be interesting to see both kits side by side, especially since they're from the same source master pattern.

Rob, the camo looks fantastic. It looks like the marker has worked, at least from a consistency and application viewpoint. Hopefully it dries well and you can get an even finish.

Tamiya lacquer thinner is cool enough to use on plastic to strip paint. I haven't tried it on resin but have done several regular canopies with no side effects. I do give them a final polish to remove the last bit of residue and then they're as good as new.

Very nice paint job Peter. Glad something went your way on this build. Hope I haven't jinxed things 😄

Really nice nose job and build John. Quite the improvement over the original. I thought resin canopies weren't supposed to fog over from CA fumes? Maybe just a quick polish and it'll be good as new? Carl

Great sleuthing and problem solving there Ernie. It really is astounding how those canopies can be so different. Not in a good way either unfortunately. I think the chop and channel is the way to go with the rear canopy. Now to figure out the best spot for the cut

Peter, clear resin is exactly what I was reminded of when I was trimming the parts and cleaning up the attachment points.

So did my single seater that I built earlier.

1/12 scale Tiger 1 anybody? https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/m/10921175 Even comes with crew figures.

Much of the recent Tamiya kits are quite nice. Their M18 Hellcat and Achilles are both very nice. Having built the AFV Club versions of both, I was happy to see modern versions of each one. Carl

It's awesome already. The amount of detail crammed in is truly impressive.

Definitely a cool looking camo scheme.

Time for another small update. I started work on the canopies. There was surprisingly a fair bit of flash on the parts. The moulds are fairly new so wasn't expecting that. The other thing is the clear plastic had a rubbery sort of feel to them. Not the hard brittleness one usually associates with clear parts. Which is probably a good thing. I'm using an Eduard TFace masking set. It does both the interior and exterior of the canopies. Here they are with the Dark gull grey started. Now off to my cousin's wedding.

The fit continues to look excellent. The sink marks don't look too bad in your pic. Maybe you can use Mr Surfacer to fill them? Save on excess filler getting every where. Carl

Lucky Models has the kit up for preorder at $52.99. Squadron does too but they're asking $100 with free shipping. Since it's supposed to come out next month it shouldn't be long before some sprue shots start showing up.

Nice build there. When someone of your calibre says a kit is challenging, it makes me pause for thought. Carl

Great work Gary and it's good to hear that the parts fit is excellent too. I'm still resisting. But getting weaker....

Looks really good there Rob. Carl

Rog, sorry about that. I didn't know that Reskit was making burner cans until you posted it. Which means I'm not sure about their size either but hopefully they're correct. Carl