:-) The Hasegawa Hurricane canopy will fit without glue, so you can fit it temporerily, if you eventually would like to fit a vac one :-)
As for painting the perfect canopy, I think we are all hoping for that, one day
Masking is really the only way to go. I use Parafilm-M but it requires a little practice, 3M tape works well, it's fairly low tack and is frosted, so you can tell when it is adhering. Tamiya tape is also very good, and is what I would suggest you try. Lay the tape on a piece of glass, or similar hard surface, use a steel rule and cut a thin strip, about 2mm wide. Cut this strip into short lengths, (shorter than the side of one pane in the canopy) Lay this piece along one side of one pane, with one corner in the corner of the pane. Do this 4 times, working around the pane. Fill in the centre with a small rectangle, that overlaps the first 4 pieces. For the more curved front part, a thinner piece of tape will follow the curve better. You can do this with tape other than Tamiya if you like.
A quicker way would be to lay a piece of masking tape over the whole canopy and cut out each individual pane with a new scalpel blade. This is what I do, with the P-M, then remove the tape from over the frames and paint. But before doing this on your kit canopy I would recomend that you practice on a spare first.
HTH
Mal
President
