I meant to attach this picture to my last post but somehow it didn't attach. The "G" with the window frames painted along side the "C" which has been taken off the shelf and dusted off. That Tamiya tape has been on there all this time (at least 10 years) and believe it or not is still good, I peeled it off the astro dome just to make sure!
Styrene shims would have worked but would not have been easier - at least for me. I use accelerator along with The CA and I find that if you do the filing within the first few minutes after the kicker is applied, the CA is somewhat softer than the surrounding plastic and it is very easy to bring the surface of the CA down even with the surrounding surface. A shim would have been the same "hardness" as the kit plastic or even harder and I have found that it I have to work at it a lot longer with the needle file to get the same result.
I had to make a last minute trip out of town so I didn't get the painting done but I have every intention to do it tonight before this short warm streak disappears tomorrow.
I finished all the masking and sprayed the second shade of silver tonight. I have a love hate relationship with NMF. I hate spraying silver even more that I hate yellow and as much as I like masking when I get about half way through it I'm thinking "Why did I choose to do another one in MNF". Then comes another session of spraying the dreaded silver by which time I have sworn to myself to never do another one. That is until I pull off the masks and see why I went through all that torture.