Unfortunately i didn't get lots of time to prep but I did try three extra tips which are noted in teh above articles. I think my attempt this time closely resembles no. 4
1. vinegar + heavy salting like old, try to air then used fridge to try and do something similar
2. Scalded, applied five spice, resalted with much bigger salt cystals, reaired. The salt crystals is an extension of the ATFT technique, but i went even bigger, so the pieces could be knocked off afterwards. Too much salt is a bad thing.
3. Apply heat and eat.
It was again, very good, but this could be just due to the fact that it was super fresh. I think the salt helped really recoup the fact the skin wasn't dry enough, it also evened out the blistering a lot more. Ultimately, I still would like to try to brine first, then air the skin till its super dry and then use the salt technique to try and get that smaller blistering. It seems the application of five spice latter doesn't affect the flavour of the meat negatively so that will save some hassle later.
