I have seen several models on the internet of the Hasegawa kit with the canopy open only a fraction of its full travel. It looks odd because the canopy should be either fully open or closed. I never understood why those modellers did this until I test fitted my canopy on the model! The canopy cannot slide completely back on the model because it hits the Heat Exchanger RAM intakes on each side. My initial thought was that Hasegawa had positioned the intakes too far inboard, but closer inspection and checking with references shown that this was not the case. So what was the problem? If all the parts where in the right position, why would the canopy not slide back all the way?
The nose wheel strut benefits from some detailing with wire and metal foil.
Some extra details added from plastic card.
The main landing light will be fitted with a MV Lens when complete.
The big job of masking the intakes took a while. The blue stuff in the intake is actually just wet tissue paper (used to fill the large gap) which has been covered with Mr Masking Sol from Gunze.
This is the picture that finally tipped me off as to why the kit canopy would not slide all the way back. Notice how the canopy actually slides over the top of the intakes! The way the model is designed, it does not do this. So some creative thinking was needed.