Odd'l Rockets F-18 Hornet Development & Build, Part 8, Canopy Fitting

Take it slow when working with vacuform pieces. 

This applies to the vacuform parts in the Estes Saturn V, Saturn 1B and the Odd'l Fighter Jet canopies. An extra 10 minutes of careful cutting and sanding will lead to a great fit and strong body tube bond.

   

The border of the canopy has to be cut off before fitting to the tube.

To better see the recessed edge, draw around the base with a ultra fine point Sharpie or ball point pen.

With a new sharp blade - 

SCORE around the line. Don't try to cut through with a single pass.

With your score cut halfway through the plastic, flex the plastic down the cut line until the border plastic breaks off.

At the lower right, it says "Score and break lines." Note the lines at all four corners. 

It helps to cut these outside lines to as you are flexing to break the pen line edges.

This illustration is from the kit instructions.

Set some fine sandpaper around the BT-50H body tube. Note the pen lines are still visible. These will end up being sanding off.

Go back and forth in a straight line down the tube over the sandpaper.

 
Here you can see the pen marked edges getting very thin and starting to come off. About the time all the pen ink is gone you should be getting a good fit on the body tube.

Don't glue the canopy on yet. 

It will be glued on after spray painting and decals are applied.