S5 modeller Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hi chaps. I have recently acquired a kitech blue thunder kit. After looking at the canopy, I found that it is very cloudy and seems to be made out of a weired material. How easy would it be to cast a new canopy out of clear resin I have found a company that sells water clear resin, which looks ideal for what I want, but I have never tried casting before. How easy is it to make a 2 part mould, or is there an easier way to do it? This is the stuff I was looking at http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/p-1592-water-clear-casting-resin-inc-catalyst.aspx Thanks for looking. Matt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Ranger Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 From what little I know about casting, my understanding is that clear resin requires a pressure pot in order to do it right. It's a job best left to professionals. My recollection is that the Blue Thunder canopy is made up of flat panels. It might be easier to make one from scratch from clear plastic sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarLos Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 If you use Ferrero Rocher plastic boxes you can glue the panels with liquid glue - contrary to CD plastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 If you have the original its quite easy to 'crash' or 'plunge' mould a new canopy; gives you a thin one like a vacuum formed one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 I don't know if crash moulding would work, as the canopy is quite tall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 What scale are you working? If necessary the canopy could be moulded in three sections; top, port and starboard, then joined along the frames. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 (edited) The scale is 1/32 I believe, or there abouts. Might give up on the idea of casting one, and go down the fsbrication route. Been to my lms, and they have all the bits I have in mind to give it a go. As you can see it is quite faceted. You can't make it out in the bottom picture, but I have polished one of the panels with micromesh. I have got it looking quite good, nearly crystal clear, but I have polished off the frame detail and I am worried about over thinning it. Just the bit I did has removed 5 thou off the thickness. As it is only 40 thou to start with, it is a considerable reduction. Also it too about 90 mins just for one panel. Matt Edited March 18, 2014 by S5 modeller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritJet Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 If you want to make a mould from a canopy I would make a female one so you end up with the mouldings the same size and with any frames etc on them. Mount the canopy on some soft wax or plasticine and make sure you avoid any sharp changes in contour as the hot plastic will crease there. Best to have a look at how vacform canopies have been done and copy that. Make a box around this and spray with release agent. Mix up some Isopon car filler, carefully working it over your canopy to exclude any air bubbles. Make it about 5mm thicker than the tallest part and allow to cure. When it's cured remove from the box and wax and drill small holes where the air is likely to get trapped. The Isopon may damage the original part but you'll be able to make as many as you want soon.... Make up a wooden box with an open top and fit a strong mesh to it, also fit a pipe into the box for the air to be sucked out of. Make this fit the household vacuum cleaner pipe (ask if you're not sure what that is!). Glue and seal all the joints with epoxy resin. Place the mould onto the mesh. Make up two frames about 15mm wide from hardboard/plywood that can fit over the wooden box to hold the plastic sheet. Cut some PETg sheet to fit the frames and sandwich it between them. Usiing some gloves hold all of this with some mole grips or similar and heat UNDER the grill (using a cooker ring will allow too much heat to build up and scorch the plastic). When the plastic smokes and sags place it over the wooden box and switch the vacuum on. You will get after a bit of practice some usable mouldings. Hope that makes sense but if not I'll take some photos of what I've done. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 Thanks steve. I have looked at crash moulding, and have a good idea how it works. My main worry is that the original canopy is over 2 inches high, and I don't know if the material will stretch that far. Matt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritJet Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Yes it might be a bit big to mould one, As Spaceranger said, it's all flat panels so you're probably best to find some clear plastic that you can glue together and make one that way. It's not going to cost you much or take a lot of time and if it doesn't work you haven't lost anything. If it does work you've learnt something new! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicE1 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Looking at your canopy! it looks fine to me! it looks as if it only has a bloom on the surface! before you try doing anything that might damage it I would suggest you try to polish it first followed by a dip in Future!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 The pictures don't do it justice. It is quite foggy and there seems to be a bit of a texture on the surface. I don't know what material it's made of, it's not like normal canopy material, it is fairly soft and flexible. Not like any canopy I've ever used before. I have read that the kitech kit is quite a bad repop ( ie. rip off ), so I should imagine they used really cheap materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedbird Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Make yourself a simplevac form macine ( dead easy) fill inside of canopy with bluetac anf continu onto outsode efges of canopy untin its sitting as n a block of blutac..make a small balsa wood or sturdy card frameant tak a piece of clear acetate onto frame..turn on vacformer and place canopy onto it..heat acetate film until it softens and start to sag then drop over canopy on vacformer..let vacformer run till new acetate is cool then romove.cut out and use as any other vacform canopy..thats how I would do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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