FineScale Modeler – October 2019

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How to remove and clean a canopy

After mounting holes into

the bottom of the fuse-

lage, I realized that drilling

crud had lodged itself

underneath the canopy,

already in position.

There was no alterna-

tive but to remove the

clear piece and clean out

the offending debris.

Note that I would end

up doing this procedure

twice when I decided to

leave the sliding hood

open, so I was glad to have

a fail-proof system that

didn’t damage the canopy.

For circular inspection panels on the wings’
underside, I made plastic templates with the
No. 5 punch of my Waldron punch and die set.

I aligned the plastic sheets against the

adjacent straight panel lines, then secured

them with short strips of drafting tape.

To render the triangular wing fold plate and

the oval panel around the oil coolers, I again

used templates of thin vinyl.

Here I am tracing around one of my

homemade templates.

As I finished drawing panel lines on an area, I
would follow with an artist’s stump and a flat
bristle brush to smudge the graphite, blending
it and creating a grimy appearance.

On the wing’s upper surfaces, I tackled the

Wildcat’s wing root fillet and curved wing-fold

lines with a combination of flat vinyl and note

card templates.

Using a needle chucked in my pin

vise, I carefully scored around the

canopy until I had an undercut

started. I then used a sharp,

curved blade to deepen the cut. I

finished with a brand-new No. 11

blade to free the canopy from the

model. No imprecise cutting here!

After cleaning up the edges of the

canopy, I reattached it with single

drops of weld cement applied

under the aft corners and

windscreen. Then I filled the

undercut created by the removal

process with lengths of stretched

clear sprue.

A careful application of cement

wicked into the joint melted the

sprue, filled gaps, and made a

strong bond.