RE: Tiger 2 Canopy
You could build a mold, and glass/prime/paint it as you suggest. It'd probably look pretty neat if you did some kind of gloss black/charcoal gray finish, even if it's not transparent.
Doing the mold should be pretty easy for a Tiger canopy... the sides and top are flat, and then it just slopes forward into the fuselage. I'd get a couple of big pieces of foam insulation and cut/sand them to shape. If you wanted a transparent canopy, you might be able to just melt a piece of clear plastic over the mold in the oven... but I'd keep the temp low!
Hopefully somebody's got one sitting around.