hi all just about to start my first ever aircraft model its the tamiya 1/32 f15e with bunker buster as i,ve only built armour before one immediate question upon opening my new kit today was how to remove the awfull seem line right through the middle of the canopy without damaging it i,ve studied the article in this forum "how to build the f15" and the guy used something called compound 2000 is any one familiar with this what is it and where can i get it ?? many thanks

If you visit the 'sylmasta.com website you will find a product in a set by Micro-mesh, this is what you need.
The best article on its use is in the Tamiya Magazine of January 2005, where they used it on the 1/32nd F16CJ canopy to remove that very line.

Hope this helps.

John

Look for stuff in the automotive area of your LHS. There's a set of sanding pads in the States that goes to 16,000 grit (maybe 32,000) that will dry polish plastic to a crystal clear shine.

Varied grits of sand paper 400-1600 and NOVUS polishing compound with a little elbow grease and water is all it takes.

As Rotorhead has pointed out, varying grits of sandpaper (or sanding sticks) will get rid of the seam line quite nicely.

If you don't have any polishing compound, rather than go out and buy some, you can polish the canopy with toothpaste.

As the Bunker Buster kit comes with two sets of clear parts, you can practice on one, and if it turns out OK, perfect. If you bugger it up, you have a spare.

For the most part, the kit goes together fairly well, so you should not have any issues.

The seam is there because a multi part mould is used to creat the complex curvature of the canopy.
You will find that it is actually very easy to remove, just take your time and all will be fine. I would suggest that, before sanding, gently scraping the seam with a sharp scalpel blade (or hobby knife) held at right angles to it, going carefully and avoiding hitting the canopy itself, will leave you with a minute mark to sand out.
When I did this on a 1/72 F15 (years ago) used the finest emery paper I had, 1200, then polished with toothpaste. I now have a polishing set with grits down to 32,000. In my experience you don't need to go that far, but a little trick, get 1200 grit emery paper ( a useful thing to have anyway), sand with that, after scraping, then take 2 pieces of 1200 grit and sand them against each other. This will give you almost 2400 grit, well it will give you a finer grit anyway, but apparently it should half the grit texture.
Have fun, just take it nice and carefully and as Kevin says you have 2 sets of clear parts so you can practice
Mal

hi guys many thanks to all for your reply,s i did get some 12oo grit paper the other day from automotive shop fine papers are used by car sprayers down to 2400 grit apparantly excellant tip about the tooth paste but contray to the above posts my kit only contains one set of plastic parts not two guess i,ll just have to be real carefull last day of work tomorrow then i can start my kit ten solid days of modelling thats what i call a happy xmas!!!!!!!!!!!!

hi mal, i checked the instruction sheet again for the kit and under the list of parts it does list only clear sheet of parts so i guess they must have changed the kit proabably charge more for it as well