At last the fiberglass windshield retainer has been removed from the fuselage. As I expected it took four coats of filler and many hours of sanding to get the final surface shaped and very smooth. What I didn't anticipate is that, including sanding of the fiberglass and fourt coats of filler, it took over 12 hours of sanding. Hmm. Must be missing some essential technique. Anyway, it's done. The first two photos show closeups after sanding after the third coat of filler. One more coat was needed.

The third photo shows the retainer right after careful separation from the fuselage, before any trimming. It's a view you probably won't see on other airplane building web sites -- because it's sooo ugly! 

The final photo below shows the retainer after the initial trim cut. It will take quite a bit more work to reach the final shape, but this represents completion of the hard part. The rest of the windshield job should be all downhill from here. [Ed.: Why does he keep saying things like that?]