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I didn't inset it totally, just left it sticking out just a tad. You know what, the circular impressions on either side of the seats are not symetrical - oh well, not a biggie.

Okay, bad idea... wait till you temporarily glue on the canopy and seal it in with a liquid mask before you start sanding away. Man I got all sorts of little fillings, particles and water inside the cockpit. In fact I almost lost that HUD display glass since it came off sometime while I was handling the fuselage while I was sanding. Valkyrie was right, it is a bit thick, I was going to fashion a new one from some clear styrene, but it had the cool hud display decal on it already. Luckily I managed to find it in my mess. The sanding of the side seams was done with 600 grit paper/film using the wet method, whereby you use a lot of water to help prevent the sandpaper from clogging. This shot shows the orange minus mold properly seated within the larger hole. Stamen is absolutely right, it looks so much better this way - I just wished I did it with the seat out before it was glued in.

I'd thought that while I was waiting for that little hole to dry, I'd start sanding the side seams - the Mr. Surfacer from last night had dried. I put some masking tape on either side of the seam to help protect some of the really fine engraved details from accidentally being sanded off.

Here's the other side, I painted the shallow hole dark grey as well.

You're right stamen, the orange minus molds do look a bit out of place - damn, I wished I hadn't glued everything together yet. Oh, well here goes - wish me luck. I am going to try to drill out a larger hole to sink the orange minus mold into. I used the largest drill bit I had for my hand pin-vise, but it was still too small, so I used it to drill a pilot hole, now I am using a 7/64" bit on a dremel with a really steady hand at the slowest setting.

I've painted a thick stripe of Mr. Surfacer500 (the grey line) along this horizontal seam so that it will help fill in some gaps when I sand the seam down tomorrow. Thats it for tonight...

Here we go, I've glued the top and bottom fuselage halves with tube cement, because I need this to be strong and the tube thicker glue with help with the seam - in fact, that seam/gap at the rear bulkhead of the cockpit closes up nicely when you glue the top and bottom down tightly (I guess Hasegawa did know a thing or two, and weren't just being lazy).

Here's a view down into the cockpit.

Okay, I've re-epoxed the canopy rod and we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if this will hold. I've glued those two orange thingys on now, they look pretty cool.

Hmm, it looks like it should work - it makes sense... but unfortunately it doesn't really work. When I try to pivot the canopy down, the metal rod just gets ripped out of the canopy. There isn't enough of a surface for the epoxy to hold onto, and there is just too much torque when the canopy is pivoting. The rod and ball of epoxy just comes off - luckily without damage to the canopy. It can't hinge, but it may be able to be stuck in at an angle for ether open or closed. I am going to try to cut the rod shorter and glue in a piece behind the two sheets that will allow the rod to ether go in straight (closed) or at an angle (open position).

Just checking to make sure everything closes up tight.

A shot from behind...

Don't know what it is - but it looks like it could belong...

At least the space behind the seat now doesn't look so empty.

A shot with the pilot in place.

I brush painted them grey to blend into the cockpit - I don't want them to stand out - just a little texture when you're looking directly in. I brushed a little metallic grey over top to pick out some highlights.

Here's a shot with one side of the handles done with the black stripes.

I'd thought I start to put some "gak" in the back behind the seat to make it look more technical. Thanks David for the heads up - I will try to restrain myself These parts are left over bits from an old 1/48 scale Apache helecopter (monogram I believe) that was being mined for spare parts anyways. (FYI the pilot for the 1/48 Apache makes a really good rebel pilot for the AMT X-Wing with minimal modifications) I tried to keep it to the edges.

here they are on a piece of masking tape (so that I don't lose them, they are so small after all) and I painted them with orange.

I thought I'd use these tiny little puppies...

Now, I wanted to do something about those circular discs near the head rest. The molding didn't come out too sharp - and they seem to be fairly prominent in most of the anime shots and are definetly unique to this plane. Plus the supplied red dot decal by Hasegawa just ain't right - its orange in most of the anime. I decided to use one of these discs that came in a wave option parts that I got from HLJ a long time ago (you can see its the mini U-vernier kit). These guys are great, they are cheap (200 yens or something) and really adds extra detail to the model.

Here's a shot with it painted yellow. A usually use a black gundam marker or a fine pigment type pen to draw the black stripes on. On such a small scale 1/72, its best to just draw vertical lines (or as straight of a vertical line as your steady hands will allow ). I don't bother with the spiral pattern unless its at least 1/48 scale.

Here's a shot with the canopy in place - notice that I bent it into a tighter radius and into an angular triangle shape. I had to make sure that I could still close the canopy.

Here's a shot with the pilot in - just to make sure that it doesn't hit his helmut

I got took a screen capture of this shot - it shows that the handles are not circular like the F-14s, they are angular.