canopy problem

Can you heat the canopy and stretch it wider?

I suppose this would be a theoretical possibility, but I wouldn't know how to go about this. The Seiran's canopy is a complex shaped, glasshouse affair. Any hints?

Rob

Yeah, either buy a vac canopy from Squadron if they have them, or squash a new one out of thermoform. You can widen that easily to fit the fuselage. And having it vac makes displaying it open much much easier.

I wouldn't even think about heating/widening the existing canopy; chance of disaster is extremely high.

--Stephen

I have this torchier lamp with the 4" long tube-like bulb in my shop. It throws a lot of heat, so much so that I have to use an implement to hold anything close to it. I use it to soften plastic or to stretch sprue. I have more control over the softening than with an open flame.

Great idea, but Squadron isn't cooperating, and neither is Hannants. No vacform canopies off the shelf for this bird.

How does one do this? Create a negative mould, heat up the vacform material, and press it into the mould with the original?

Rob

Wasn't aware of that. Good information. Falcon does it?

Load the original canopy with modeling clay and put it on a stick in a vise. Heat thermoform plastic over a candle, and when it's nice and shiny, pull it down over the original canopy. To do a large canopy, it will more than likely take several attempts.

On the other hand, each attempt may get part of it right; with this plane and its multiple sections, that could do the trick nicely. On the other hand, who knows... the first try might just be the charm.

--- Stephen

Looks like I put a little too much faith in these two mailorder shops. Turns out that Pavla does a vacform canopy for this aircraft, but neither site listed it. Still, now that I know it exists, I should be able to scrounge one up:-)

I'll take that for a spin sometime. I probably won't need it on the Seiran, but there will be others..

Rob

Hi,

maybe it's worth trying to contact Tamiya and explain the problem ? Good chance they'll send you a fresh one that might fit. I bought the AR II Mitsubishi Dinah last week and the decals were missing. They're sending me the sheet by airmail. I remember Revell and Airfix doing the same. SO, give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose.

trikke

"Rob van Riel" schreef >>> Great idea, but Squadron isn't cooperating, and neither is Hannants. No

I might drop them a note, if only to make them aware of the problem, but I get the impression the canopy was not a mis-cast. They probably can't send me one that fits, simply because they don't have a mould to produce them with.

Rob

How about narrowing the fuselage by taking out that millimeter at the glue joint? Even with an assembled model that should be possible, using a good razor saw, provided that the cockpit tub doesn't prevent the clamping.

Rob

My models: