Where to get spare clear plastic parts?

[Lucas CAV]

Anybody got any good sources for things like turret moulding or cockpit canopies for 1/72 models?

[Eric Mc]

You can try the "missing parts" section of the company that built the original kit (if they still exist). Most do supply replacement bits.

Alternatively, there are a number of companies that manufacture vac-form replacement canopies and turrets. Falcon of New Zealand have a very extensive range of mainly WW2 subjects.
Aeroclub abd Squadron Signal also produce vacform canopies.
Outlets such as Hannants and the Aviation Hobby Shop will have these ranges in stock.

These canopies are extremely tricky to cut out and glue to the aircraft but, if done properly, usually look better than the original kit transparencies.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 25th February 11:00

[Lucas CAV]

Cheers Eric

The kit is a very elderly Airfix HP Halifax B3 and there are a few little bits missing.

It is surprisingly well fitting so far - I cna make up most of the missing bits but tranparencies are beyond me!

It is interesting that having just built a contempory Revell 1/72 Beaufighter where each engine was made from several parts.... on this old kit it is produced in one lump!

Don't get me started on these old instructions though.....

[perdu]

Although involving Airfix is always a good idea it isnt too difficult to make your own

If you get a dollop (lovely sizing system "dollops") of Milliput and mould it by hand you can make a buck on which to hand mould your own.
With a large enough basic dollop you can carve the shape you need and then polish it, add framing details and extra bulges where needed.

I'm not the owner of many of my old planes but this photo shows the results after a tad of practise. You need a sheet of acetate clear plastic(Christmas presents for "the missus" were always a good source of clear packaging for this!)

Hold your buck up off the worksurface (I used to mould a stout stick into the Milliput and hold it in my bench vise. A bench vise is essential for serious modelling, even if it means a trip down to a chilly garage)

Then light a candle and hold the sides of the strip of acetate between thumb and fist each hand

hold it near a candle flame until it goes "floppy"

You will see and feel this happen quite quickly, when it goes soft pull both hands over and down onto the buck keeping your hands close under the buck until it cools

After a few "goes" you will feel good with the technique and won't often feel like fitting a kit canopy that is about six scale inches thick to your models again

Things to note

not over the candle flame unless you want a smoked or burnt finish for the canopy

it cools down very quickly and you do not have much free time

but

if it fails it can often be rewarmed to go again

this also works with polycard (plasticard) to make bulges and swollen undercarriage doors too, no more over scale u/c doors either

Alan Hall used to show this technique using male and female moulds but the very existence of a female section often made the drawing of the plastic not work, due to friction and overtight pulling

I often used the kit canopy filled with Milliput and was able to carve the canopy framing to fit better too

Oh yes, it will not work first time, get lots of placky sheet to practise on

Edited by perdu on Thursday 25th February 22:49

[Eric Mc]

The Airfix Halifax is a very elderly kit (early 1960s) and definitely shows how crude models were 50 odd years ago. Unfortunately, it is the only model available of the Hercules engined Halifax variants and I have seen some stunning builds of the kit.
The canopies and turets in the kit are not that great - being so old. Falcon do a compilation set of 1/72 British World War 2 bombers which includes a complete set of canopies and turrets for the Halifax.

The Revell Beaufighter is by no means a new model and by no means state of the art. It was released only a few months ago but it is, in fact, a remoulding of the old Matchbox Beaufighter - which was originally released back in 1974. By modern standards its a bit chunky with over deep panel lines (a failing of many Matchbox kits).

The best 1/72 Beaufighter without doubt is the Hasegawa model - but it retails at around £20.00 these days.

[dr_gn]

Lucas CAV said:

Anybody got any good sources for things like turret moulding or cockpit canopies for 1/72 models?

Try the wanted section on Beritmodeller. I got some spares there recently.

[Eric Mc]

The Halifax canopies and turrets (both Airfix and Matchbox/Revell) are contained in Set 17.

http://www.falconmodels.co.nz/clearvax72.html

[perdu]

I do like the look of those Falcon parts

If they'd been around thirty years ago...

Good basic instructions too

[Eric Mc]

They can be extremely tricky to cope with - but they are MUCH better than injected parts. Being thinner, they are much clearer more realistic.

[dr_gn]

I'm getting one of these for the '109 (assuming I can adapt it to fit):



Perfection.

[Eric Mc]

I picked up the 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf109E yesterday - only to find it is the old 1960s model I made as a kid. It even had Revell GB Ltd stamped insuide the fuselage (Revell moved their European operations to Germany in the 1970s).

I think I'll donate it to a youngster.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

I picked up the 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf109E yesterday - only to find it is the old 1960s model I made as a kid. It even had Revell GB Ltd stamped insuide the fuselage (Revell moved their European operations to Germany in the 1970s).

I think I'll donate it to a youngster.

I built a few of these in my time:



Still got a fuselage half from one of them: white plastic.

I built the 1960's Stearman and Se5a from the same series a couple of years ago: still very fine models, and great box top art.

[perdu]

Is that Revell 109 the one with the hinging canopy, looks familiar

Wasnt too bad a model if made up carefully, ISTR your file and sanding block were your friend

dr_gn I like that canopy but

can't you make it out of plastic instead?



mischief?

Me?

surely not...

TBH I would have tried a plastic version but the tinware looks quite exciting

[Eric Mc]

That's a piece of nostalgia, I can tell you.

The new box art is quite good too - minus the Swastika, of course.

PS - I've just noticed that the original box art doesn't appear to feature a Swastika either. I am pretty sure that the image has been doctored for modern internet useage. I'd swear the actual box art DID show a Swastika back in the 1960s

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 27th February 15:16

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

That's a piece of nostalgia, I can tell you.

The new box art is quite good too - minus the Swastika, of course.

PS - I've just noticed that the original box art doesn't appear to feature a Swastika either. I am pretty sure that the image has been doctored for modern internet useage. I'd swear the actual box art DID show a Swastika back in the 1960s

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 27th February 15:16

Well spotted. Despite my research into the JG-53 Bf109's (historically correct lack of Swastikas for a time) I completely missed the fact that the above box art doesn't have one. I just checked my 1974 Revell catalogue (bought off EBay for pure nostalgia), and the original art does not have a swastika either. Nor does the FW-190, or the 262 (obscured by piot) in the same series. It does however feature on other artwork in the catalogue. Some are are a mirror image, but others are normal swastikas.

Very odd.

Edited to add: I have in my spares box an original 1960's Revell Ju 87 decal sheet, and it does feature a correct swastika.

Edited by dr_gn on Saturday 27th February 16:04

[Eric Mc]

The dropping of Swastikas from box art and decal sheets began in the late 1960s, early 1970s - I think. Some kits still feature them and others include a Swastika in pieces - whuich means you've got to "assemble" your Swastika from the components on the decal sheet.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

The dropping of Swastikas from box art and decal sheets began in the late 1960s, early 1970s - I think. Some kits still feature them and others include a Swastika in pieces - whuich means you've got to "assemble" your Swastika from the components on the decal sheet.

I've got my original Matchbox 1977 catalogue, and that has swastikas on all appropriate models. The 1/32 Bf 109 I was given also has them. Maybe it was selective? I could have sworn the 60's / 70's Revell stuff had them.

[dr_gn]

perdu said:

Is that Revell 109 the one with the hinging canopy, looks familiar

Wasnt too bad a model if made up carefully, ISTR your file and sanding block were your friend

dr_gn I like that canopy but

can't you make it out of plastic instead?



mischief?

Me?

surely not...

TBH I would have tried a plastic version but the tinware looks quite exciting

Perdu,

I don't think it's Revell, it's either the 21st Century Models one, or Hasegawa. According to Radu himself (the guy who makes them), he isn't sure the canopy kit can be adapted to my Matchbox version. For the sake of less than £10 I'll give it a go. Which brings me to your question of making it out of plastic. Answer: why? I'd probably spend £10 on plastic card, acetate and sundries, and it still wouldn't look as fine as the photo-etch, and nor would the hinge mechanism be as robust. I guess for me it's a question of time/effort/cost vs. end result. In this case, this p/e kit will be tricky, but hopefully worth it.

Cheers.

[perdu]

dr_gn said:

perdu said:

Is that Revell 109 the one with the hinging canopy, looks familiar

Wasnt too bad a model if made up carefully, ISTR your file and sanding block were your friend

dr_gn I like that canopy but

can't you make it out of plastic instead?



mischief?

Me?

surely not...

TBH I would have tried a plastic version but the tinware looks quite exciting

Perdu,

I don't think it's Revell, it's either the 21st Century Models one, or Hasegawa. According to Radu himself (the guy who makes them), he isn't sure the canopy kit can be adapted to my Matchbox version. For the sake of less than £10 I'll give it a go. Which brings me to your question of making it out of plastic. Answer: why? I'd probably spend £10 on plastic card, acetate and sundries, and it still wouldn't look as fine as the photo-etch, and nor would the hinge mechanism be as robust. I guess for me it's a question of time/effort/cost vs. end result. In this case, this p/e kit will be tricky, but hopefully worth it.

Cheers.

go on admit it, you cant see me laughing there can you?



I wasn't talking about that beautiful bit of etching work at first, I meant "was the Revell kit the one with a hinging canopy"? I remember a sixties 109 that had a hinged canopy, was sure it was the Revell one, had quite a thick pintle moulded at the hinge points and a similar recess in the screen and rear section mouldings

(mind you that is a challenge isn't it? Wouldn't be as good in scratch built plasticard and just as expensive. Are you telling me you make models without a huge stock of spare plackycard? I wonder if I still have some hanging around, must look soon)

Aha, amazing I have just found all my old stock of plasticard, plastic rod and many of my spare transfer sheet portions, all from 30 years ago. Excuses for not having another bash are getting smaller

Swastikas

Airfix were one of the longest stop outs when others started putting them into kits mid-late seventies ISTR, I used to buy up batches of Almarks Swastikas in all sorts of sizes and styles, white outlines, black & white outlines and filled black areas. All the styles you can imagine really.

It was a funny old time back then, politics we can't ever beat them can we?

[dr_gn]

perdu said:

dr_gn said:

perdu said:

Is that Revell 109 the one with the hinging canopy, looks familiar

Wasnt too bad a model if made up carefully, ISTR your file and sanding block were your friend

dr_gn I like that canopy but

can't you make it out of plastic instead?



mischief?

Me?

surely not...

TBH I would have tried a plastic version but the tinware looks quite exciting

Perdu,

I don't think it's Revell, it's either the 21st Century Models one, or Hasegawa. According to Radu himself (the guy who makes them), he isn't sure the canopy kit can be adapted to my Matchbox version. For the sake of less than £10 I'll give it a go. Which brings me to your question of making it out of plastic. Answer: why? I'd probably spend £10 on plastic card, acetate and sundries, and it still wouldn't look as fine as the photo-etch, and nor would the hinge mechanism be as robust. I guess for me it's a question of time/effort/cost vs. end result. In this case, this p/e kit will be tricky, but hopefully worth it.

Cheers.

go on admit it, you cant see me laughing there can you?



I wasn't talking about that beautiful bit of etching work at first, I meant "was the Revell kit the one with a hinging canopy"? I remember a sixties 109 that had a hinged canopy, was sure it was the Revell one, had quite a thick pintle moulded at the hinge points and a similar recess in the screen and rear section mouldings

(mind you that is a challenge isn't it? Wouldn't be as good in scratch built plasticard and just as expensive. Are you telling me you make models without a huge stock of spare plackycard? I wonder if I still have some hanging around, must look soon)

Aha, amazing I have just found all my old stock of plasticard, plastic rod and many of my spare transfer sheet portions, all from 30 years ago. Excuses for not having another bash are getting smaller

Swastikas

Airfix were one of the longest stop outs when others started putting them into kits mid-late seventies ISTR, I used to buy up batches of Almarks Swastikas in all sorts of sizes and styles, white outlines, black & white outlines and filled black areas. All the styles you can imagine really.

It was a funny old time back then, politics we can't ever beat them can we?

Ah I see what you meant now, but the Messerschmitt model boxes Eric and I posted were both 1:72 scale, and I can't remember ever seeing one with a hinged canopy that small. That's why I assumed you meant the 1/32 scale model shown with the aftermarket canopy fitted. Are you sure you're not thinking of the 1/24 Airfix '109?? I seem to remember that canopy opened in exactly the way you described it.

Yes, I make models without plasticard (at least 99% of them so far!).

As far as swastikas on models go - I can see why the symbol was banned in Germany, and if it's banned, it's banned (but not for artistic works of course).

Cheers.