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Showing results for tags 'clear parts'.
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Hi All, I recently tried to remove a flaw from the canopy of a Zvezda 1/72 mig-29. Unlike most other manufacturer's clear parts, the canopy seems to be made of a softer, more flexible clear substance. I guess the thinking would be that it's less prone to cracking. However, this makes polishing it up nearly impossible. I've tried a few techniques that work on other manufacturers parts, but with no success. The canopy just stays a milky white colour. The best I can think of describing this is to imagine trying to polish a piece of hard nougat to a mirror like finish. I had a look at another Zezda kit I bought, the Mi-24, and the parts seem to be of the same rubbery material, and holding them up to sunlight they reveals less than impressive levels of clarity. Has anyone else had any issues with Zvezda clear parts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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I recently bought, sight unseen, a Fonderie Miniatures 1/48 Halifax kit. The kit came shrink wrapped so I was fairly confident it would be complete but worried about the condition of the vac-form clear parts as I remember there were damage issues when the kit first came out. The kit provides duplicates of all the transparencies so I hoped at least one of each part would be usable. Sure enough, one of the tail turret transparencies was somewhat crushed as were both of the clear nose parts. One of the nose transparencies also had white stress marks in the plastic. Then I remembered something about plastic having memory. If you heat it up it will return to its original shape. With nothing to lose I heated some water to just below boiling and dipped the damaged tail turret in briefly, not even for a second. It looked better so I did a couple more quick dips and pretty soon it looked as good as the undamaged one. I did the same with the the two nose transparencies and both of them were quickly back in shape and the white stress marks disappeared as well. The key is to get the water hot enough and to do quick dips. I was actually surprised how good the parts looked after I was done; you can’t tell that they had been partially crushed. They really were unusable when I started. There are probably limits to how much damage is recoverable using this method, but if you don’t have an alternative to replace a damaged vac-form clear part this is worth a try.
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Can anyone inform me about Trumpeters 1 32 kit for the Corsair F4U 1D with regards two questions : 1 : can I paint the clear engine cowling directly or do I have to prep it in some way ? Someone suggested spraying Scotchgard on the surface. 2 : how does the acetate film instrument panel get glued or attached in between the back and front panel pieces ? Theres no place to spot glue into any area...
