vacform canopies!

Howard of Effingham · July 11, 2006, 07:42:22 AM

is it just me or does anyone else hate and or find difficult sorting out vacform
canopies? i have just had a second attempt to get the canopy looking ok on a
wiffed m'box meteor and its annoying to say the least.

trevor

cthulhu77 · July 11, 2006, 08:10:35 AM

No matter how dust free your environment is, you always end up with little flecks in the plastic...I tend to dip mine in future several times to get rid of them. (if you look at the gunslinger mech build, you'll see the frustration) That canopy took seven (7!) dips in future to become clear.
Whenever I do vac canopies, I wipe down the plastic with a tack cloth just before heating it up...some people use alchohol, but I'm always worried about fogging the clear plastic sheet.
greg

NARSES2 · July 12, 2006, 04:56:28 AM

I normally manage to cut them out ok then when I use clearfix to glue them in position they quite often skew because of the pressure needed to keep them in place acting on a very thin canopy. Some have ended up very lopsided

think I'll get myself some odourless superglue and see how that works

Chris

Brian da Basher · July 12, 2006, 07:20:43 AM

I've been trying to use white glue (e.g. Elmer's) to secure canopies whenever possible. Since canopies aren't usually a load-bearing part of the build this tends to work quite well as long as you let the glue set before any handling. Also the white glue dries nice and clear...no fogging. B)

Brian da Basher

Tophe · July 12, 2006, 08:58:52 AM

Quoteis it just me or does anyone else hate and or find difficult sorting out vacform canopies?

You are not the only one, dear

: I hate vacform canopies just as you, maybe even more...

John Howling Mouse · July 12, 2006, 06:54:10 PM

Quote
Quoteis it just me or does anyone else hate and or find difficult sorting out vacform canopies?
You are not the only one, dear : I hate vacform canopies just as you, maybe even more...

Yep, what he said.

Just when I think I've got them cut properly, I discover I was out by a scale mile!

Blah: hate 'em!

nev · July 13, 2006, 12:48:08 AM

Quoteis it just me or does anyone else hate and or find difficult sorting out vacform
canopies?

Nope I loathe the damn things too. Only ever fitted 2.

My Lightning 2-seater I cut it out and attatched it OK, but it had invisible frame lines, so I had to paint them freehand

My Mirage 4000 was a disaster. Too wide for the fuselage, requiring tons of filler to try and blend it in, and I didn't put enough Future on the canopy so the superglue fumes made a nice etched pattern on the inside. The model is still sat 75% complete and has been for 6 months

Leigh · July 13, 2006, 09:14:04 PM

As for cutting them to fit I use a pair of straight edged toenail clippers that way I can take off a sliver at a time. But how do you cut them if you wanna display them open?

MartG · July 14, 2006, 12:41:34 AM

Actually fitted my first ever vacform canopy last night ( Anigrand YF-17 - my first resin kit for over 12 years

) and it was a PITA

Still not particularly happy with the fit, but after over an hour of messing around with it I got to the point where I declared "It'll have to do"

matrixone · July 15, 2006, 10:29:03 AM

Its good to known I am not the only one that hates those things.

I use Microscale Kristal Klear for attaching the canopies to my models and it works good with the vacform canopies.

Matrixone

Archibald · July 19, 2006, 07:05:30 AM

voila! I'm interested by some Anigrands kits, but I never saw a resin kit in all my life

so I don't want to spill 50 euros for a kit I can't make...
I need to know more about vacuform canopies! What does it look like? Is it difficult to fit? Can you fit that with ordinary glue (revell) or loctite glue?

Brian da Basher · July 19, 2006, 07:08:28 AM

To attach a vacuform canopy to resin you'll need either CA or white (like Elmer's ™ ) glue. I'd reccomend the white glue because it won't fog the canopy and you can use it to fill in any gaps.

To assemble a resin kit you'll need CA (Loc-tite, Krazy-Glue etc.).

HTH,
Brian da Basher

NARSES2 · July 19, 2006, 07:27:14 AM

You can get odourless CA which won't fog the canopy or dip the canopy in Future/Clear first.

Like a lot of things vac canopies are down to experience and confidence plus always order a spare if the maker dosn't routinley provide one.

Chris

lancer · July 19, 2006, 08:28:22 AM

Got experience of 4 Vac formed canopies now, and I still hate the damm things.

Archibald · July 19, 2006, 08:36:29 AM

Quotealways order a spare if the maker dosn't routinley provide one.

Thanks guys! the question is : does anigrand provide a spare canopy ??