so maybe its a right of passage - i was gluing a large 4 piece canopy for my Lysander and of course some of the glue ran on 1 side and i buggered up another spot. I was using quick set tamiya thin and the canopy had been dipped awhile back in PFC. Is there anything i can do to try and remove the 2 spots? I was hoping it would dry clear - haha. Nope.
can you post a picture of the canopy?
Depending if the glue ate through the PFC or not. Windex will remove PFC
Hi;
I find that after having been soaked in PFC that you can usually take a spot of fine rubbing compound and clear it up.
Best glue I’ve found for cockpit canopies is watch crystal cement. MicroMark has it.
Also, Testor’s clear canopy cement is a white glue, like Elmer’s, that dries clear, and it is water soluable so you can wipe off the excess before it dries.
Or you can use Elmer’s, or Ailene’s Tacky glue, same thing.
I have always used clear epoxy to attach my canopies.
tks all. I would have to guess that the glue settled on top of the PFC. These canopy pieces were hard to get in and the plan was to use the glue dropper to drop just a dab to help them set up for more glue later. Oh well… Things were already out of square a little so getting tem just right is/was a challenge. That being said i still have to shave a tad off the tope to get it right and the darn wings i think are going to be a little askew. Im gonna try a little windex but i dont think that will remove the glue. Nail polish remover?
Windex will remove the Future from the piece, back down to the bare styrene. It won’t help with the damaged areas.
And I don’t think nail polish remover, whose active ingredient is the solvent acetone, is going to make this better, either.
Tamiya extra thin is a glue designed for gluing styrene pieces together by dissolving them, then the cement cures and the pieces are welded together. It’s not like it’s a layer that can be peeled off (which is what white glue does-it surrounds the mating edges and cures to hold them in place, it doesn’t react chemically with the material).
I think you’re going to need to sand and polish out the clear areas melted by the thin glue. It’s not a disaster-most of us have had to do the same or similar thing at one time or another, to clean a piece of clear styrene.
As far as the glue goes, I also use Tamiya Extra Thin, along with some other brands of liquid styrene cement, for most assemblies on a styrene kit. I don’t often use it for attaching clear parts, though. I use white glue (Elmer’s) as others have mentioned, or MicroScale’s Kristal Klear, but I also will use old-fashioned Testor’s styrene glue in a tube. I apply it to the mating surfaces with a toothpick, and its slower curing time gives me time to make adjustments.
Hope that helps!
I’ve used 000 or 0000 steel wool to remove small glue marks then polish with rubbing compound for plastic but it’s a Delicate process
tks. i was afraid to use even a small amount of white glue or similiar in fitting them as i was afraid of making a big mess. The way these pieces were fitting, it took me like 12 times of trying to get them right in the dry fitting… Aghhh… ok. we’ll see . keep ya posted.
White glue’s pretty forgiving. As Cadet Chuck mentioned above, you can clean up the excess with a little water. It also can help fill minor gaps around the clear piece. For example, I the last time I built Monogram’s old 1/48 P-51B kit, I used white glue to attach the side panels, and to fill the gaps there.
Ok. Lesson learned. White glue I guess. UPDATE: didnot try the windex, because… Nail polish remover no good too and then I tried some rubbing compound with no luck. This is where is gets bad - a dremel with cotton wheel. Well, power tools in the hands of the inexperienced leads to warped and scared plastic. Hummm, now debating to go on and just finish it off or make a mule of it! Shucks. On the bright side - the Tamiya glue has held it all together!!
Ok, lesson number, well, a lot, learned… This being my 1st aircraft, maybe I picked a hard one… I guess I should have masked the forward canopy before assembly? It’s a 4 piece unit and I wasn’t sure. Anyhow it was a buger to fit then glue and I messed it up with the glue marks as mentioned. I was too chicken to try and mask it once assembled and installed. It was very awkward and I was too afraid of pushing too much On it. So, at least for now, I just covered it and sprayed. I did mask the rear one. Are you suppose to prime the ribs after masking before you paint? It had pfc on it… It got sprayed then after clean up I noticed I forgot to finish it so it then got brushed.
so this is the rear one. Whats the best way to finish it off? Its been clear coated w/ PFC before painting w/ flat tamiya nato black. I going to try to trim up some of the lines and remove some splatter… I forgot to block off the underside when spraying. But not too bad i guess for the 1st time… Is it okay to dip in PFC to seal?
anyone?? tks
Nice work, but, OK, I give up. What is PFC?
I’m pretty much a beginner, having let some 50 years slip by before trying my hand at another plastic scale model.
I’ve had sleepless nights over canopy painting, but your canopy looks great to me. For minor clean-up of dried paint, I’ve used orangewood cuticle sticks with good success, using them just as you would use them to push cuticles back. When clean-up is done, brief emersion in Pledge/Future floor wax and drying in a dust-free place should do the trick.
Bob
PFC is the current pledge floor care, the old future acrylic floor coating.
Mct…try using a round toothpick to clean up the edges of the frames. Usually when painting frames, you first paint the interior framing color from the outside, then overcoat with the exterior color. No primer. Then your interior color shows on the inside of the framework.
You can also make a tiny chisel with a chunk of plexiglass. You can get a nice, sharp edge on it, and it won’t scratch the polycarbonate of the canopy while you scrape the paint away from the edges.
Tks for the help. As mentioned, Pledge Floor Care. Now i know i can safely dip it!