Getting close to the finish, with just a few small jobs to do.
Some of the detail painting involved "abrading" the code letters. The Kagero profile shows the "Z" on the port side is abraded along the top edge, this being supported by the photos of the real aircraft. It's possible that this happened when / if the upper surface AEAF stripes were removed, although there is no visible evidence of remaining traces of these. I have seen photos of a rather nice model of this subject, displaying neatly done "ghost" outlines of the upper surface stripes, but as I can't see any outlines in the photos, I decided not to replicate these.
A new armoured glass screen has been made and fitted., as the modified kit screen looked too small. I didn't have any clear sheet thick enough to make this, so the screen was cut from a 1/24th scale car windscreen found in the spares box. It took three attempts to make this, as the rather brittle plastic kept cracking, and the final attempt still has a small crack on the top, right corner, as viewed from the front, but this isn't really visible under the canopy, so I'll live with it.
A wedge-shaped rear view mirror has been made and fitted, using the tip of a 1/48th scale HVAR, filed flat on one half of its diameter, then re-shaped slightly and cut to size, before attaching to the top of the windscreen using PVA, and then painting once fully set.
Test-fitting of the canopy showed a small gap at the front of the "V" shaped windscreen, so some work with a file allowed a slightly better fit, although there was still a small(er) gap. The canopy was attached using PVA, and then a bead of PVA was laid into the gap, sealing this and blending-in the windscreen to the fuselage. Once this has fully set the area will be re-touched as required, and the canopy cleaned.
I'm hoping to getb the undercart fitted tomorrow, along with the pylon sway braces, then there's just a couple of small details to add, before fitting the prop and getting the model finished.
Pics below show today's progress.