Has this ever happened to you?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I was working on a 1/72 P-47 this weekend. It’s a Revell kit and it was fitting together beautifully.

I had the whole assembly done. And brought it to my workbench in the basement to spray it with aluminum metallizer. I got the whole plane sprayed, and left it to dry.

About an hour or so later I came back to find the engine cowl had split! There is crack that runs from the front of the cowl, to the back, right on top. It just split open. I’ve never had this happen before.

Could the paint drying have caused enough stress on the plastic to split it?

The only other thing I can think of is temperature change. My basement is about 55F, compared to upstairs which is about 68-70F. Now, the plane did sit in the basement overnight before I painted it. So I don’t know if the temperature difference is what caused this or not.

I’m in the process of filling the crack with putty and sanding because the rest of the model looks too darn good to just chuck at this point.

Any ideas what might have caused it?

2

Could be a combination of temperature, and the lacquer solvents “debonding” your joint. What did you use fo r glue?

Gip Winecoff

3

Gary-I’ve cracked cowlings putting the radial engine in or jamming the cowling on the body. Maybe that’s what started the crack.

4

I use the regular old school testors glue. But this crack wasn’t anywhere near a joint. Right in the middle of the part.

Dan, I think you’re theory is probably what happened. I remember thinking it was a snug fit (the whole kit fit together so well I joked to my wife that I could have gotten away with not using any glue on it).

5

Was there a fault in the plastic? This would appear a different color (a lighter shade usually) then the rest. The metalizer could have shrank as it cured and the fault could have split it being the weakest point.