Clear plastic replacement moulding techniques ?

Not counting aftermarket vacuform replacements,many in here either stretch form or vacuform their own.And simple parts can be replaced from clear sheet. I've done all three,but I still prefer what's in the box when possible.

I have an ancient Mattel vacu-forming machine and have made my own canopies in the past, just not much recently. Like Eyeball, I tend to use what comes in the box unless it's really bad.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Many years ago, after looking at the excellent photos of one of the groundcrew polishing the front turret of a Wellington I thought I'd have a go at building a miniature version of the turret with innards and the old Airfix canopies wouldn't allow fitting of any of that stuff inside. I think another reason was that I was at engineering college at the time and mentally pulling apart the Fraser Nash workings and just wouldn't leave it alone so couldn't put a clear lump over what looked like the gunner holding a kitchen stool out of the window by the upturned doorknob in his hand.

Do you use something like Milliput to make the moulds then Plasticene for the soft plug to shape the acetate when vacuum forming ?

Richard.

In my case I used Kenner's Play-doh for the base and stuck the original piece therein. My canopies were very much copies of the exterior of the kit provided parts. This enabled me to 'open' up the canopy without the unreal thicknesses of the original clear parts.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Klm at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 2/1/04 5:17 PM:

No. Modelers have been doing it for years. The only time I've had a problem was when I tried to do drape forming with material that was too thick. Just remember to support the piece you are forming over. Like Bill says, Play-Doh works very well and keeps the original "high" enough to get the lower edge formed.

My 2 cents.

HTH

MB

Not usually, but you could always stick the master in your freezer for a couple hours before using it....