Around the edge of the clear canopy there is a slight "trench". So you can better see the cut line, run a pen around the trench. I prefer to use a fine point Sharpie.
TIP: The plastic will be stretched thinner at the highest or widest areas. The center area of the long sides will be thinner - Go light!
To make the edge removal easier,
Make some side cuts from the scored line to the outside of the canopy.
Bend the edges back and forth until the sides crack away from the center canopy. You might have to go back and score the line again.
Here's what the rough canopy cut will look like.
Wrap some 220 grit around the main tube and sand back and forth in a straight line.
The upper picture shows the edges coming off. You should sand until the pen lines are gone and the sides are smooth.
Check the fit on the nose cone.
On this canopy I had to make a deeper radius at the front. Notice the sandpaper is wrapped over the front end of the nose cone. The rear of the canopy is raised up when sanding.
Chris- Have you considered offering the clear canopy for sale separately? I think a lot of cloners and scratch builders might be interested. Not to mention F-104 and F-16 kit owners that have lost their canopies in flight!
ReplyDeleteHi BAR,
DeleteI've thought about selling them separately but they are vacu-formed to fit this size tube and nose cone. If you have a good fit of the canopy on the nose cone and use medium CA (glued in place with a bead of CA around the perimeter of the canopy) it should stay on through a flight. I've launched mine F-16 and F-104s dozens of times and haven't lost a canopy yet.
On the topic of cockpit-style nosecone... Many years ago, I do remember while looking at the nosecone found on the Space Racer ( http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/estes91/91est18.html ) kit (the same one that's used in the current Scorpion, Lynx and Puma kits), I thought "I've seen that shape somewhere." I happened to have the canopy piece from the one of old Centuri fighter plane kits and did a side-by-side comparison. Sure enough, the shape was the same with the canopy "backwards" (narrow end forward). Additionally, if I placed the canopy piece in that orientation against the nosecone, the fit was *very* close (i.e. very little sanding would be required).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of backwards canopy... the Reman Scorpion fighter that appeared in "Star Trek: Nemesis" had a canopy that was from a F-18 installed backwards.
Hi Naoto,
DeleteI just checked the two canopies, an original Centuri Fighter Fleet canopy and the molded in canopy on the Estes Lynx. They are very close. The Estes molded in canopy is a little higher and shorter in length. The Centuri canopy had raised lines suggesting a small window in front.
BTW, just to be clear, the cockpit-style nosecone from the Space Racer, Scorpion, Lynx and Puma kits are for body BT-20 body tube, while the old Centuri fighter kits were based on 1" diameter body (i.e. just a tad larger than BT-50).
ReplyDelete