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Hello there

I'm working on my Avenger and it's canopy is not clearly transparent. From inside, the surface is lightly grainy. From outside too, but it's not that bad.

Any idea how to get rid of it?
My goal isn't superclear transparency, but pilot should be visible more, than just as a silouhette.

An image:

Dip it in future.

I don't think it's possible to. I've got an Avenger (and the newer Lightning) and the cockpit parts aren't just roughly textured, they're barely even transparent. The resin is only "clear" in name, there are visible bubbles inside the window areas, etc. IMO the best solution would be to cut out the "glass" parts, leaving only the cockpit frame, and replace them with thin sheets of clear plastic.

 Peregrine wrote:
I don't think it's possible to. I've got an Avenger (and the newer Lightning) and the cockpit parts aren't just roughly textured, they're barely even transparent. The resin is only "clear" in name, there are visible bubbles inside the window areas, etc. IMO the best solution would be to cut out the "glass" parts, leaving only the cockpit frame, and replace them with thin sheets of clear plastic.

I agree.

Dipping canopies in Future works well for a clear styrene canopy, but I don't think it would do anything in this case.

I'd order a transparent acrylic sheet (http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/acrylic_sheets_clear/508 -- the "sample" order is 4" x 4" for $2) and cut out my own canopy in its smoothest most transparent state and rough it down to get the transparency you're looking for. The thinnest thickness TAP offers is 1/8" (just slightly north of 3 mm), so it leaves a bit of room to sand down to spec.

They also offer colored too: http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/acrylic_sheets_transparent_colors/519

You could also get the 'window' from an envelope with the address showing through. It'll cloud up if you use super glue, but simple PVA works good.

It's shame that this model for it's cost have theese issues.

Otherwise, I head about technique of using very fine wet sandpaper (2000), then some polishing paste and finally flanel piece of cloth. This is used for plastic, but i don't know if it will work for resin too, when it is completely different material.

 Hawky wrote:
It's shame that this model for it's cost have theese issues.

Honestly I don't know why they switched to doing clear cockpit parts instead of the old-style solid frame with a sheet of clear plastic to cut into window sections. It just looks better IMO, and is so much easier to deal with. No masking, no polishing, just build and paint the model and then glue in the window pieces.

Otherwise, I head about technique of using very fine wet sandpaper (2000), then some polishing paste and finally flanel piece of cloth.

The problem is that this only deals with surface roughness, while these parts seem to be made out of a cloudy material. And you'll also have a hard time polishing the window areas without damaging the frame around them. It's worth a try I guess, but I wouldn't expect amazing results.

Should be vacuum forming the clear parts out of acrylic or another clear plastic sheet...

Most likely if they cast them in resin - they will suffer from the same issues other Forge World casts have...and be a bit like swiss cheese on the inside. Polishing the surface will make it clear, but only madden you as now you have a clear view of all the bubbles that you can't do anything about.

Cutting out the glass areas and replacing them with a clear material is pretty straight forward, if a bit annoying. For the replacement glazing, you can get clear acetate sheets from companies like Evergreen or Plastruct as well as various clear sheets from office stores (range from laminating sheets to document protectors).

Thanks for tips.
There are no visible bubbles, just grainy surface.

The most effective and easiest way after all I think it would be is to scratchbuild entire canopy out of plasticard. With right dimensions and perfect fitting.
Not like the FW original, which required green-stuffing. Shame on them again. And again.

Good bye old canopy, hello AutoCAD!

Building it perfectly out of plasticard seems like more work than cutting out the windowed areas and replacing them with clear plastic.

You could also recast the canopy, and exclude the transparent areas. It wouldn't even be that hard, because only the outside facing of the canopy needs to be nice.

Yes, it would seem so, but then you will get extremly bulky canopy frame. And I can adjust the dimensions, because original canopy doesn't fit perfectly.

I'll make model in Autocad, use Pepakura for unfolding and assembling will be pretty easy.
I hope.

This is a bit disheartening to hear as I finally ordered one of these myself. Clear resin can be polished, but it does take a lot of work. Hopefully my canopy is bubble free.