Academy 1/48 F-15E Strike eagle

[T. van Vuuren]

I just got me one and at first glance it looks rather nice.Good pannel detail, nice mouldings, nothing seems warped and with a sprue full of weapons!

The only bad thing so far is a nasty joint moulding line right down the middle of the windshield and canopy!Any ideas of how to get rid of it without damaging the rest of the clear parts to much???

I will be doing it in the later one tone medium grey scheem as it can be done with my limited airbrush.

This will be a "long-ish" term build, but for R200-00 (arround 15 squid) it will keep me buzy for a while yet.

Theuns

 

[Gern]

Hi Theuns,

This link goes to a tutorial which shows exactly what you're after

Polishing Canopies

Gern

 

[Fenlander]

I had the same issue with my Revell Eurofighter http://www.scale-models.co.uk/under-construction/9007-revell-1-48-eurofighter-typhoon.html I was quite surprised how easily it cleaned up but I was bricking it when I first started. I have a set of good sanding sticks that go from rough to a buffing pad. I sanded most of the line off with the rough, then switched to medium, fine and finally buffing with the sanding sticks wet at all times. This worked fine and with a dip in clear afterwards, the line was gone.

Two things I would advise though. One, mask off the canopy in case you slip and sand a bit you don't want to with the rougher sticks. Two, pack a block of blue tack into the canopy to hold it firm but be very careful. Canopies are brittle and fairly thin, any pressure may cause it to crack as mine did.

 

[T. van Vuuren]

That is good advice ,thanx a stack,I will go look at that link aswell.

We just don't have "clear" or "future" here in SA, But I know a guy who is going to the US next month.I hope the airlines will let him bring a bottle of this stuff in his luggage.He realy doesn't look like the Talliban at all!

I can't fugure out why the joint line in the canopy, I built the F-14 with the same size canopy and it aws OK.The rest of the plane looks good though.I read the review on this plane and it mentioned the line, but I had hoped that it would have been sorted by now, old stock maybe.

Theuns

 

[Fenlander]

It is something to do with the shape of the canopy. Sometimes referred to as a 'blown' canopy. The shape makes it impossible to remove from the mould without having the seam in the centre line. Becoming quite a common problem on modern jets apparently.

I just remembered. You can use car polish for the final buffing, maybe if you do that it will not need the Klear to fill in those fine scratches

 

[T. van Vuuren]

There is an idea!

T

 

[Gern]

Graham's post has just reminded me. Many moons ago I did some car valeting and used a product called Autoglym Glass Cleaner for the car windows. But we also used it as a mild cutting paste for scratches in the paintwork. I understand that most glass cleaners have a grit content so you could try one of those - preferably on a piece of scrap just in case the grit is too coarse.

I've also used toothpaste as a polish for canopies.

Gern