I have a smalll problem. I have lost the whole canopy sprue portion to my hasegawa F-18C. I heard vaguely that I can purchase clear plastic and cast a new canopy with heat to form a new canopy using another canopy as a mold. Has anyone tried this and if so any tips? Currently I am working on a 1/72 scale diorama of CVW5 and I’m going to model two hornet squadrons from that airwing so I figure I would just buy another kit and use it’s canopy as a mold.
Thanks in advance.
HEY,
I havent tried this but ive heard that it works pretty good, but i cant be sure so dont quote me.lol I dont know much about aircraft and stuff, but how much is two squadrons? Sounds like alot to me. Well, have fun doing it anyway man, and make sure to post some pics of a build this large.
Randy
TC,
I’ve made stretch form windscreens for 1/12 scale bikes before - it isn’t hard - but it did take quite a few shots before I got one I was happy with -
I made a male mold out of balsa, sealed it with superglue, sanded it smooth, then polished it to a glass-like finish. The supergue is extremely hard - as I’ve had original plastic canopies deform from the heat of the sheet plastic draped over it.
There were several dust specks in the new (and very thin) windscreen (the dust being very difficult to completely get rid of), so I sanded with 2000 grit sandpaper, polished it with Brasso, then dipped it in Future - it came out perfectly.
This screen was easy - no undercuts and a fairly symmetrical shape. An aircraft canopy might not be as easy.
It might be easier to write to Hasegawa and arrange a replacement sprue.
Thanks for the tips. Actually I am only modeling 2 seperate F/A-18C hornet kits one from VA-195 Dambusters and VA-192 Golden Dragons not two whole squadrons. LOL, my wife would have a hey day, it’s bad enough I have a closet full of unbuilt models let alone having duplicates of the same, she has a hard time understanding why I need a A,C,D,E etc… version of the same aircraft. But my little display/diorama will include
1/72 Scale of CVW 5
VA-195 Dambuster F/A-18C Hornet
VA-192 Golden Dragons F/A-18C Hornet
VAQ-136 Guantlets EA-6B Prowler
VS-21 Fighting Redtails S-3B Viking
VF-102 Diamondbacks F-14 Tomcat
VAW-115 Liberty Bells E-2C Hawkeye need to make some decals though
HS-14 Chargers SH-60 Seahawk Trying to get some Flying Papa’s Decals
and one 1/700 Scale CV-63 Kitty Hawk
It would be fun to build a huge dioramma of an USN airbase! Hey maybe there could be a giant group build? As for a replacement I have looked on Hasegawa’s Website and found their USA distributer, who I have emailed,although I haven’t received a reply, I know Testor’s and Monogram will provide replacement parts hopefully they will too. If not I’ll try my skills at the molding method, I just wanted to hear from some of you more experienced modelers before I try it. Thanks
Over the years FSM has had several articles on making canopies and turrets, showing about every method you could wish for (most are on vacuforming). The earliest I could find was in the August 1986 FSM in an article by Bob Stienbrunn. If you dig through the indexes for the yearly issues, you can get copies of the articles you want made for a small monetary renumeration.
If you don’t want to spend the time, energy and money on materials on making your own, check out Squadron and Falcon, they may already have the canopy you want in production. Squadron usually puts two canopies in their kits (1/72 & 1/48) and won’t cost you very much.