How do you get rid of those seams on canopies?
recon

Hi Mike,

I'd ever known the canopy seam as the 1:48 Hasegawa F-16 Falcons canopies, fortunately, I found this model review on the web:
"...The first thing I did was clean up the seam running down the centre of the canopy. It's a necessary evil so that the shape of the canopy will be bulged. I sanded the seam off and then used fine steel wool and wet and dry sandpaper before finally polishing with some automotive rubbing compound. After washing all the residue off I dipped both parts in future and left them to dry for a few days. The future worked like a charm and left the parts crystal clear. I then masked them with Parafilm and set them aside for painting."
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Cockpit/3873/f1601.html

Hope that helps,

Hi Mike

Seams usually aren't a problem to remove. I use two methods:

The cheapest is to get hold of a nail buffer ffrom the drug-store. These usually have 2 or 3 grades of very fine abrasive coating and a buffing pad. Simply start with the coarsest grade to sand off the mould-line and work progessively through the finer grades to remove any scatches. Finish off with the buffing pad to give a real shine that looks like new.

The alternative is to get a set of Micromesh Polishing Cloths. These work on the same principle as the nail-buffer. They are quite expensive, but are very useful additions to your modelling tool-set.

I hope this helps

Rowan

Hi Mike!

On my Hasegawa F4U7 Corsair's canopy ( see here ), I get rid of the seam using Tamiya fine abrasive paper (gold) and then Tamiya Polishing compound... it worked fine!

Jean-Luc

Hi,
I generally use a very sharp blade to remove the seam then I rub the surface with .... toothpaste to give the canopy its transparency again.

HTH
olivier (sometimes building other things than armor )