Sorry that it happened to you. It does remind us all of our own screw-ups, though.
I once very carefully listened to what was then an "old timer in the hobby" describe to my newby mind how to mask off a canopy with some "fancy tape" that was available back then. I think it was that black masking tape sort of stuff used to draw out circuit layouts on poster board?
Anyway, I listened very carefully, went home, masked off the canopy frames with the tape, remembering to tape over the back side with some larger tape.
Sprayed a great looking coat of Japanese Green on that canopy and let it dry. It was one of the Japanese Torpedo planes with allllll that glass framework.
It dried beautifully, no stray dust, or any blemishes.
so, I got out the tweezers and started removing the tape.
And then I almost cried.
I had masked off all of the frames, and the back side just great,,,,,and had done an excellent job of keeping the paint off of the frames, and laid a perfect coat of paint onto all of the windows.
I had accidentally combined the "painted tape for frames" tip with the "masking with fine tape, and then filling in the windows" tip.
That model set in the "box of doom" for a while, and then when people started selling Vac replacement canopies, I finally finished it.
Cheer up, Glenn,,,,,,,,you don't get to become an expert without making a few mistakes now and then.
Rex