Advice please - making new cockpit glass

[kiseca]

Hi all,

 

I am currently building an Aoshima Airwolf kit. It comes with two fuselages, which opens up the possibility of kitbashing up a second Airwolf.

 

One of the trickier bits of that would appear to be the cockpit windows. There is only one set of those in the kit.

 

So, before I add the glass to my current build, it would seem sensible to make impressions of the glass that can in the future be used to make a new set of windows for the second fuselage. It's a helicopter so there are a lot of glass bits around the cockpit: two windscreens, two door windows, two skylights and two ground view windows below the rudder pedals, so 8 bits of clear plastic in all, and every one of them is curved in at least one direction.

 

It's a styrene model. My question is, what is going to be the best way for me to capture the shape of each part so that I might in future make copies, possibly by plunge moulding or vacform?

 

I've looked online about making moulds but the ones I've seen have said to be very careful about what setting substances I use because they might react with whatever kind of styrene Aoshima used. And they use an awful lot of equipment from heat lamps to plasterboard bases and all sorts that I don't have.

 

If I am going to vacform the parts - assuming I can even get clear styrene sheet - I only need an outside impression of the glass shape. So I need something i can push the piece into that will accurately retain the shape and allow me to make the opposite mould from. But, and this is the most important part, I cannot destroy or ruin the existing pieces while doing this. They still need to go on the helicopter.

 

So, thoughts on best material to make the impression in, and also thoughts on best method to make the copies all very welcome!

[tomprobert]

I would have thought a possible method would be to use a barrier material (such as bare metal foil, for example) to protect the kit clear part, and then press this into something like Milliput, which will dry rock-hard and keep the shape perfectly. 

 

When it comes to molding a new copy, again use bare metal foil (or similar) to line the inside of the original mold you made, and then again fill it with Milliput. When this new mold is cured, you pop it out and can use it as a 'buck' to vacform or plunge mold a new clear copy. 

 

I'm sure there may be others who can chime in with a better plan, but the above was my initial thoughts.

 

Tom

 

 

[kiseca]

That sounds like a good and safe idea, thank you.