The tailplane stripes have been re-painted, and will be masked when fully dry.
Whilst waiting for the paint to dry, I started work on the canopy. I had thought of using a vac-form canopy, as I have a couple to hand, mainly due to the kit canopy looking a little too "deep" on the lower frame, and the horizontal frame seeming rather "heavy".
However, the lower line of the pointed windscreen doesn't match the kit cockpit opening and, if cut to pose open, the canopy itself would look a touch too thin.
Therefore, the kit canopy was used, after shaving down the horizontal frame and then polishing. I decided that the lower frame would be acceptable once painted, and the canopy fitted in the open position.
The windscreen was carefully separated from the canopy, using a razor saw, and the edges of this, and the canopy, thinned down.
Those internal frame areas that will be visible were masked, and then painted Dull Dark Green, and the external frames masked and painted Dark Blue.
The masking has been removed, and the parts will be cleaned of adhesive residue and given a polish, once the paint has fully hardened.
A handle will be added to the top of the inside of the canopy, and I'll need to make a rear-view mirror for the windscreen. There is a mirror included in the kit, but it's the conical type, whereas this aircraft had the "wedge" shape, faired mirror ( I'll probably use the "wedge" shaped mirror from the Hasegawa kit, as this will be built with a conical mirror anyway ). Both of these items will be added once the parts are ready to attach, near the end of the build.
I'm hoping my hands will be sufficiently flexible enough to spray the NMF sometime tomorrow, given I can get some household chores out of the way first.
Pics below show the work on the canopy to date.