Anyway this X-Wing probably was in a private collection and maybe the guy who owned cut the canopy ? I'm pretty sure that's an ILM fuselage, Kevin could you confirm this ? I'm sure you can !
So, this is the David Jones (DJ) pyro, and I've managed to track down 26 decent images of it, and to my eye this is very much the real deal. I too initially thought this might be related to the John Eaves (JE) casting, but in my opinion, the DJ castings are not descendant from the JE castings. They are first cousins, to be sure, but not the same.
To my eye, the DJ fuselage is cleaner than the JE, without all of the chipped paint and re-scribed panel lines. As far as the canopy on the DJ, it's definitely different from the JE. It's only the front part of the that has been cut away on the DJ, while the rear portion, which has the proper panel lines, is still integral with the fuselage. Also, I believe that the angles and alignment of the frame uprights are correct to the original pyros on the DJ, while something...funky...happened to the JE canopy along the way.
Add to that the relative general crispness of the droid strip, engine, rear plate, cockpit and pilot castings, and the completeness of that original ILM droid, not to mention that it came straight from one of the original model makers, and I would be willing to bet that this model is as close to derived from production as anyone will ever have an opportunity to purchase.
In my judgement, while definitely related, the DJ pyro is almost certainly a notch above the JE pyro castings that Frank received while working on the MR project.
