How should I glue on a vacuform canopy?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

HI everybody!

I’m working on a plane with a vacuform canopy. How should I glue it on while still having it look like it’s a part of the airframe? In other words, I don’t want the canopy to look like a plastic afterthought. Should I used superglue? Canopy cement (made by Testors, I think?)? What I’d like to do is somehow afix the vacuform canopy to the resin (yes it’s a resin airplane), mask off the framework, then paint the plane and canopy framing all in the same shot. I’m just stuck on the type of glue would work out best. Could you please share your techniques?

Thank you!

Eric

2

Super glue is not a good option, it can make the canopy fog.

I use white glue or Kristal Klear glue to cement canopies, it works ok. I can’t comment on the testors canopy glue, I have never used that.

I always fix the canopy on before painting, just like you describe. Never had any problems with that.

3

Hey Eric,

Before you waste your money, Testor’s canopy cement is nothing more than watered down white glue. You can make gallons of the stuff on the cheap just by getting elmer’s white glue and thinning it out with water.

For canopies, I prefer hypo cement from micromark.com. It dries crystal clear and has a superior bond (it’s used for gluing watch crystals). It’s $8 for 2 tubes, but they’ll last a good, long time.

CAs will just cause the canopy to fog unless you give them a few coats of Future, first.

-Fred

4

Future. If the canopy fits suggly a little Future applied as you would a solvent cement using a brush, should capillary action itself and bond the canopy to the fuselage. If you get any glossy spots on the fuselage in the process, you can flatten them down with a drybrushing of a flat clear.

5

Thanks to all for the responses. I should have mentioned that I did, in fact, Future the canopy. That future is a miracle, isn’t it?!? LOL! I hadn’t even thought of applying the CA with a small brush. I had this one track mind of applying the CA directly from the bottle and I knew what a mess that would be. So I’m going to use the brush trick with the CA. While I usually do use white glue for the canopies, I’m just worried about pulling it off the plane when I remove the masking tape after painting.

Thank you to all! I’m just about done with this plane (Collect-Aire’s XP-54) so I’ll post it when it’s complete.

Thank you for your help!

Eric

6

So you apply Future with a brush to “glue” the canopy to the frame? Or are you going to use CA? I am confused…