Ed Sunder
SMF Supporter
Well, things are coming along, but I've gotten to the point where I'm working on the clear bits and there's an issue. The sliding part of the canopy clear part has sprue gates that attached to the window in such a way that it would make part of the clear window stick out proud about a millimeter of the main window. I think that plastic got out of the extrusion - it didn't look like it was meant to be there. So I sanded it down as best I could, although I lost a bit of the lower window detail (which I should be able to replace with some putty), but there's just no way to easily remove it. I already got rid of the seam down the middle of the canopy, which I'd never seen on such a small model - I've had it on 1:48 f-16's - but which wasn't too much trouble. But I've sanded and polished and sanded and polished and there's just no way to get this to really blend. Here's what it looks like now:
You can see it in the corner - it looks like a chip out of the plastic (and on the bottom, it is sanded out a bit - like I said I can fix that part with putty or something) but the other part is standing proud in such a way that I just can't get it smooth. Part of the issue is that the canopy shape is a curve and so as I sand, it's difficult to only sand that part and not things around it and also to match the shape. I'm not sure I have a good solution. It isn't absolutely terrible, but I just hate stuff like that...
Update: I used a metal file to go at it more precisely, it took a while to get the scratches out, but it actually worked decently. My only real issue now is that the pressure I was putting on it seems to have created an internal very faint crack on the back - it's only visible at certain angles and is pretty small. It perfectly aligns with the seam I had to remove. I am hoping that once the ejection cord decals are on, it'll be close to invisible. Photos will come later...
You can see it in the corner - it looks like a chip out of the plastic (and on the bottom, it is sanded out a bit - like I said I can fix that part with putty or something) but the other part is standing proud in such a way that I just can't get it smooth. Part of the issue is that the canopy shape is a curve and so as I sand, it's difficult to only sand that part and not things around it and also to match the shape. I'm not sure I have a good solution. It isn't absolutely terrible, but I just hate stuff like that...
Update: I used a metal file to go at it more precisely, it took a while to get the scratches out, but it actually worked decently. My only real issue now is that the pressure I was putting on it seems to have created an internal very faint crack on the back - it's only visible at certain angles and is pretty small. It perfectly aligns with the seam I had to remove. I am hoping that once the ejection cord decals are on, it'll be close to invisible. Photos will come later...
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