The shape of the windows in the Panda / Dragon kit is good and they fit well but they are incredibly thick and to use them seemed a waste of all that interior detail, so I decided to vac form new ones. I want to make each one as thin as possible so rather than make them fit into the openings I will make them fit over. This also simulates the raised plates with double rows of rivets around each opening. Once formed and glued in position I can add yet more Archer rivets around their perimeter. Luckily the kit incorporates rivet lines into the airframe around each window and you will see from previous posts and the image below I have sanded everything back level with the airframe. For the windscreen I've added a lower mounting flange as well as the central vertical frame.
All the side windows were made from clear acetate cut to shape and glued into position with Gator Glue. The sliding window in the doors was depicted in the open position.
To create the vac form patterns Ive added flanges around each of the original clear parts as well as reinforcing the edges with sheet styrene.
In addition I pored plaster into the openings to make sure there was no chance of collapse when the pressure is on.
Here is the small vacuum former, it takes a 24cm x 15cm sheet ... perfect for small parts.
thats an awesome vac form machine, home made? i'm going to be building this gunship next year.
ReplyDeleteAny chance of getting a copy of those windows Matt? They look awesome!
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