Here’s a dramatic moment - the printed canopy has been glued in place over night, and the two strips of sticky medical tape is about to come off. Will it hold… :
And yes, it did hold (after second attempt, I hasten to add, in all honesty). I believe that I should leave well enough alone at this point:
There are some canopy framework parts included in the kit, and
you can see how well Ostoja made use of them in his build. However, at my 1/48 scale I believe any attempt to glue some thin frame members on to the canopy will look too clumsy, however much effort I put into it. Also, from the old newsreel film discussed earlier, it was pretty clear that there weren’t any real canopy frame on the original.
in the photo above you can see the roll of sticky medical tape I use for keeping small parts in place while the glue dries. It is very good also for joining parts with, instead of paper joining strips, which often turn out to be too clumsy, especially in small models like this. This tape doesn’t make any tears in the printed pattern on parts. I can thoroughly recommend it; available at all convenience stores.
I will let this conclude the build of the SZD-16 Gil/Bullfinch. All’s well that ends reasonably well.
Leif