Model Fleet: Clear (parts) Solution - FIRST ENCOUNTER: 10/25/07

Clear (parts) Solution - FIRST ENCOUNTER: 10/25/07

Posted by Matty on October 29, 2007, 23:45:29, in reply to "Clear (parts) Solution"
Message modified by board administrator January 4, 2008, 18:58:15

-- Originally posted 10/28/07 --

Although I dropped out of sight for a while, actually a whole lot has been going on here. This post will begin catching you up; starting with the most recent item first: Don Czech's fabulous replacement clear parts.

After seeing how good was Don's new canopy for his AJ Savage build looked - and then finding defective clear parts in my own LS Nell kit - you may recall I asked if he would show/help me do the same to replace its canopies, gun blisters etc..

Well, Don agreed and so I immediately went over to his place to take advantage ; bringing with me not only my Nell parts, but several others which were also in (even greater) need of replacement:

Click on Image to EnlargeJust look at these parts; the replacements are so clear they practically disppear against the black acrylic background! At left are all the Nell parts - the replacements interspersed with the originals, which in most cases are clouded after sanding off all their (overly-heavy) molded framing. The cockpit canopy was a special case - its defects being the least severe of the lot - so I preserved it undamaged. Note its replacement turned out only to have only slight indications of the original framing - far better than expected.

At right is one of the "freeloaders" slipped in with my request: the nose bubble for my Italeri Dornier Do217-k2 kitbash. For those of you unfamiliar with the saga of its background, I scratchbuilt the shape of the unique nose bubble and cast it in "clear" epoxy (background right) - but you can readily see just how much it has yellowed by now; a year later. So I sanded all surface joints and framing detail off of another casting (background left), and from it Don made the beautiful replacement you see (in the foreground) here. If it looks like it has a "bathtub ring" inside, that is only an illusion; it is so clear and shiny that no light is coming from inside, but only a fish-eye reflection of the entire room; off its surface!

I also took along and got Don to make a replacement for this:

Click on Image to EnlargeThe nose greenhouse for my Matchbox 1/72 A-20 RAAF Boston kitbash. For which the background story was the same as for the above Do217-k2 - except that I had already installed and completed this one. But you better believe I won't hesitate for a moment to pop off the old, yellowed nose (and cheek gun packs), to replace it with this flawless, clear molding which Don made. Actually, it was both Don and I working together who made this one, once I saw how he was doing it and figured out a way to assist. (Even Don was impressed with how perfectly we reproduced such a deeply cupped shape as this.)

In all cases the material is polycarbonate thermoplastic - just like the PET polycarbonates in your plastic soda bottles and all sorts of other packaging. More than that I won't presume to reveal - I'll let Don decide how much of his technique he may want to share - however I will tell you that it's fast, easy and dirt-cheap!

Best of all, of course, it is going to enable me (finally) to build some markedly better aircraft - particularly all these ones with large canopies, greenhouses and domes of various types. So stay tuned for that…

Cheers,

-Matty