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Repairing a broken canopy


Harry_the_Spider

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I've just unboxed a Revell Fairy Gannet and two of the canopy sections are broken in half. 

 

The breaks are clean. Will I be get away with a PVA repair, or should I try something else?

 

I've put a spares request in to Revell, but it is an old kit. If new parts do turn up I'll replace them.

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I think the cracks will always be visible my own method of dealing with this common problem is to pack the two halves together with a filler and use that as a former to plunge/pull mould new and thinner canopies

 

Or Hannants sell the Falcon canopy set which has the Gannet along with a dozen or so other naval aircraft

 

Beautiful mouldings all round and far better than the kit offerings

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Harry,

Could you upload a picture of the broken part? Sometimes, when replacement parts - or the aftermarket vac-form alternative - is out of the question, it's a matter of checking whether it is possible to fix the broken part with another scratchbuilt piece made of vac-form clear styrene.

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Im going to throw my two cents in. Help me if someone knows the answer to this ? I read a day or two ago in another WIP post about a clear acrylic gel that cures with a UV light. Someone was using it for clear lenses. But wouldn't it also work to repair clear canopies as well ? It supposedly dries crystal clear ? And as an acrylic gel it must also have some adhesive qualities. 

 

Try as i did i couldn't for the life of me find that thread again. As this is the only forum im a member of, i know its here somewhere.  

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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I have some Blufixx and it certainly dries clear with the UV light provided in the kit... blowed if I can find the thread I started about it now. I think some threads got lost in the upgrade.

Might work?

Vacform would be better though, if you can develop the technique!

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I've repaired very minor edge chips in canopies with the UV gel/glue. It will lessen the noticeability of a crack near the edge but it does not hide or remove it completely

I think a new canopy is in order.

Is the Gannet the old Frog kit or the new mould tool?

I vac formed canopies for the old Frog kit. Mine was a Novo issue and the canopies were thick and frosted.
I'm not sure if I have any of the spare vac ones in my box.

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i don't think can fix the part in a way the repair cant be seen, but that said, you can sand and subsequently polish clear parts with polishing pads (fine nail buffers of ebay work for me) to a near factory shine.

 

if you can find aftermarket parts i'd go that route, but you could also try to hearform one from clear sheet. it might take several attemps, but i've made a few very acceptable malcolm hoods for my spitfires this way, you just need to make a solid copy of the part from milliput or sumilar as ht original plastic will melt with the heat and stick to the sheet. posing the canopy open if possible will also hide it's imperfections.

 

good luck

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Quote

Is the Gannet the old Frog kit or the new mould tool?

 

Don't know. It is Revell No. 04397. Can't say that i'm too thrilled about having to drop £12 +p&p for a set of parts for the Frog kit that may not even fit.

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Thanks. If you are confident that it will fit then I may consider it. I'll see how bad the repair looks. I was going to do it with the canopies slid back anyway, so that would go some way towards making them less obvious.

 

I've got a Dragon Sea Vixen FAW2 in the stash, so that would give me a spare canopy for that too.

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The Falcon canopy was designed for the old Frog kit & its various knock offs, including a Revell one. (04106). Depending on how close to that the modern Revell kit is, the Falcon canopy may or may not be a good fit. An example of this is the canopy Falcon do for the Airfix Bf 109E, a good fit on the early one, a lousy fit on the current one. The early one was too narrow in the fuselage spine.

Steve.

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Canopies are the devils work. Tried a million things to fix them but never really right

 

I would get a replacement if available, try aftermarket options, put the call out to friends and fellow modellers (you'd be surprised what spares people have) and then if all else fails repair it and polish it and then use it as a plunge mould to make your own new one

 

Good luck

 

I might actually revert to WWI aircraft eventually to avoid all those trouble clear parts lol!

 

Good luck

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

 

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Urgh. What a pain. 

 

I'll get the Falcon ones and see how they go. If I do it with an open cockpit I can mix and match as it is the two sliding section of the front cockpit that are broken.

 

Edited by Harry_the_Spider
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