buffnut453
Captain
There was no rear bulkhead to the cockpit of F2As or its export variants. The seat was mounted on rails that were fixed in the cockpit "floor" (more of a framework that ran across the fuselage under the seat - this is not represented at all in the Tamiya kit) and ran up to a crossbar in the A-frame rollover frame. Making those changes is non-trivial so you could take the option of painting the bulkhead dark green to represent the armour plate fitted to RAF Buffalos which was often cannibalized from wrecked airframes for use on Dutch machines. It won't be 100% accurate but it's better than trying to replace the whole area aft of the seat with a realistic seat support mechanism.
As for the area under the rear of the canopy...that's a real can of worms. It could be aluminium (per the interior), black (per the upper part of the cockpit interior) or the exterior camo colour...or it could be something entirely different. Given that aluminium would tend to show up brightly, I tend not to go for that option...although it's probably how that area was coloured on early USN airframes. My recommendation would be to pick the most relevant exterior camo shade and use that. I don't think anyone can gainsay you on that (unless Mr Maas has more details...which is entirely possible). I'll double-check my pics to ensure I'm not lying through my teeth on this one...
As for the area under the rear of the canopy...that's a real can of worms. It could be aluminium (per the interior), black (per the upper part of the cockpit interior) or the exterior camo colour...or it could be something entirely different. Given that aluminium would tend to show up brightly, I tend not to go for that option...although it's probably how that area was coloured on early USN airframes. My recommendation would be to pick the most relevant exterior camo shade and use that. I don't think anyone can gainsay you on that (unless Mr Maas has more details...which is entirely possible). I'll double-check my pics to ensure I'm not lying through my teeth on this one...