I woud like to get the Trumpeter Su-27 Flanker in 1/32nd scale, but I have read that the canopy has a mold seam down the middle of it. The conventional fix for this is carefully sanding the seam flush, and then polishing out the dulled parts.
My experience with polishing a canopy has been less than helpful. I had a ton of stress fractures throughout the canopy, which was not what I had in mind, but I don’t know how to avoid it.
Don’t press so hard. And do your best to support the part by it’s shape, not it’s edges. I stick my finger in a canopy so I can support it where I’m sanding or polishing. Once work is complete, dip it in future.
Its a really simple job and no need to panic or worry at all. With the raised seam down the centres just attack this as you would any other raised plastic. I have some of those cheap soft sanders that are about 600 grit. Remove the raised seam with that and then use progressively higher grades of sandpaper to remove the scratches. For final finishing i use a buffing pad for nails. It has a soft polishing side and a final finishing side. Brings them up to look like new…and your missus may have one in her ‘Drawer’.
Good luck, oh and the tip about stuffing the inside with putty, blutack, white tack, whatever, is a good un.
Get your own nail buffer, and buy a quality, full=price one, from a normal supermarket/ drug store/ hardware store. the ones you get from discount stores aren’t good enough for polishing clear plastic.
Keep this nail buffer exclusively for polsihing clear plastic.
If you’re going to support the canopy by filling it with modelling clay (a good idea) line the inside of the canopy with masking tape first.
When you’ve finished polishing your canopy, don’t forget to dip it in Future. It makes a big difference.
Never had seams across canopies myself before but from the sound of it you have been given brilliant advice already. My first thought on this would be sanding down that seam with gradually finer grit sanding paper, finishing off with future to make it shiny again.
Just yesterday I had to take a seem out of the canopy for a Revell 1/48 Hornet… after hunting around for ideas, I came across an old posting from here… I would not have believed this would work but it did!! Here goes:
Gently sand out the seem, 600 or 800 grit sandpaper, an Extra-Fine sanding stick works well too (I prefer the stick). Once it is sanded out, get a soft rag and moisten it… now the fun part- use auto wax to polish. The posting recommended the harder waxes rather than liquid wax but since all I had was good old Turtle Wax liquid, I used it… put a little on the damp rag and start gently rubbing the canopy for about 4-5 minutes. After that, rinse with warm water and be amazed at the result!!! If the fogging is not completely gone, just repeat the process… for the canopy I did yesterday it took 2 applications, the result was amazing… no seem, no haze, crystal clear canopy!! Good luck!
For the avoidance of doubt, this advice is not to be taken seriously. Unless you wish to inflict permanent and serious damage on your canopy, do not do this!
Well, actually it works great. You need the cloth ball tool though, and toothpaste. Or you can make a cloth ball tool using the normal mandrel and a little piece of carpet. Plus wear a shirt you don’t care much for, and use lots of water. My biggest Goon moment was hand painting the frames on the Revell B-36 canopy, not liking the results and wiping them off with lacquer thinner. Oh my. But I kinda buffed it out. Novus makes a fine line of progressively nicer polishes, or use the Goddard’s from under her sink.
Well, actually it works great. You need the cloth ball tool though, and toothpaste.
Maybe so, Phil, but one slip and you’ve done permanent damage to your canopy. Not worth the risk. Incidentally, if you’re going to use toothpaste as a polish, don’t use the gel types. They melt and fog the plastic, as I found out, once, with a Hasegawa 1/32 Me.262. BUt better to use car wax, or a polish htat’s been designed for the purpose, such as the one made by Bare Metal Foil.
And for putting the final buff on what works really good is an optical cleaning cloth like what comes with a Blackberry. Hope my wife don´t see this, she´s still looking for it.
Permatex makes a product a plastic cleaner mostly used on aircraft canopies. I’ve used it for over 30 years and just only tried it on model canopies a couple of years ago. You rub it in with a soft cloth, let dry and buff. Works great its Permatex Plastic Cleaner 403 D. While called a cleaner it really is a mild polish. You can get it from aircraft suppliy stores like Aircraft Spruce.
A collegue of mine who took a first at nationals last year swears by the use of nothing but an old cotton tee-shirt. He hand rubs the canopy until it’s crystal clear without the use of any other products.
You gotten some good advice already, so go ahead and give it a try. Worst thing that can happen is that you screw up, and if that occurs, you can go with the alternative approach and purchase a vacuform canopy from http://www.zactomodels.com/
A bit pricy but includes a number of resin and etch parts as well as correcting the shape of the canopy.