OK, I have four 1/72 Hasegawa A-4’s that I’m building for a dio. I would love to have them with their canopies open, but they were molded with that option. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could achive this without completely destroying the four kits?
My first suggestion would be to check Squadron Shop to see if they have any vacuform canopies for that kit. Sounds like you’ve got something cool up your sleeve. Hope it works out.
OK, so I checked Squadron and no go, I have even gone as far to check Hannats in the UK and no luck either. I have been wondering about scribing the canopies free, but one I have never scribed in my life and two I’m not sure if that would even work.
Try plunge molding one. It’s kind of fun to do, no harm in trying.
I recall Squadron advertising a clear plastic film that one would heat over a candle, then when soft you press it over the piece you wanted to mold such as a canopy. If still availble that may do the trick.
What is plunge molding?
As mentioned above. Get a piece of clear plastic sheet. I use the top lid of the kind of tubs at the grocery store that green leafy salad stuff comes in. Or anything like that thats clear.
Set your kit part up on a stand, in a way that theres space all around and below it. One way is to jam it own on the eraser end of a pencil, or wad up some tape and stick it up inside, then a toothpick in that. Anything where it’s on a stick.
cut out a piece of your plastic abour 4 inches each side. Dont worry about ridges on it etc., just avoid them.
hold this over a candle flame for a sec until it starts to deform. Hold it over the part and pull down. It’ll take some practice, maybe a few tries, but you’ll get the idea. It comes out very thin, and picks up amazing details.
You can probably get about a half dozen out of the piece, and most will be good.
Cut out with scissors. Maybe you use the front screen part from the kit, sawn off of the bigger part. Use the plunged part for the open part.
I don’t know how the Hase kit works. Mine are Airfix, nice little kits BTW. Is any part of the clear part suppose to be part of the back that does not hinge up? That’d pose a little problem.
Plunge molding…thermo-forming…smash molding…all the same!Similar to vaccu-forming, with out a vaccuum.
I do this all the time when I want canopies open…especially on WW2 stuff with a multipiece canpoies.
I stick a gob of poster tack inside the canopy to be copied (master/kit part)…stick that on the tip of a screwdriver (I place the handle of the screw driver between my knees, to hold it). Heat up a piece of clear plastic over a candle, then stretch it down over the master. Remove and trim up with fine scissors.
It will take practice, I’d suggest, strongly, making a couple few trial runs on a scrap canopy.
You don’t have to buy special plastic for this. I use the clear plastic from blister packs (the clear packaging that Testors sanding film comes in work perfect! It is hit and miss though, some plastics do not work well (don’t waste your time with pop bottle plastic…no go!)
And there you have it from a master.
I use it a lot for really simple stuff like navigation domes or any round bump I need on something. Find something round the right size, like the end of a ballpoint pen. Heat the plastic, poke the pen into it. Voila.
Like the blue light on this silly thing. I think that was a sprue stub as a form.
One funny thing. It really really picks up the slightest detail, well.
Some of those new photoetched razor saws have super-high density teeth. The resulting kerf is very small, so they are ideal for cutting canopies. They have little tooth clearance, however, so they do tend to bind cutting styrene or acrylic. However, I find if I keep the blade lubricated with water they work fine.
It has been a long time since I built a Hasegawa 1/72 A-4, but as I recall, only the clear areas of the canopy are molded in clear plastic, not the hinged frame area which is molded to the fuselage - correct? This was also a problem with Hasegawa’s F-102 kit (and others) that were originally molded in the late 1960s. Two-part, openable canopies were just not done that often back then. I think you should rethink your choice of kit as more modern A-4s in this scale (new Airfix A-4B, Fujimi A-4 family, Esci A-4E,F) give you openable canopies and are much better looking scale replicas.
But, if you are on a budget and have to deal with the kits you have, chopping up the fuselages to remove the hinged portion of the canopies may be your only choice if you want to pose them open. Plunge forming will save you time if you want more than one. All you’ll need to fix is one well-shaped canopy, then you can plunge-form several copies.