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KH T-6/Harvard Kicked Up A Notch: Apr 14/20: Finished!


chuck540z3

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Thanks Guys!  A local modeling friend said that he gave my lights a 7/10 for execution, but a 10/10 for trying something new!  I think that's totally fair and behind the thick clear plastic lenses on the wings, it hardly matters.

 

I am now on to attaching the wings to the fuselage, which has a few small issues and checking out the fit of the canopy glass, which has a LOT of issues, as others who have built this kit have found out already.  I think I have the perfect solution, but I'll need a few more days to see if my idea works.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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1 hour ago, chuck540z3 said:

......which has a few small issues and checking out the fit of the canopy glass, which has a LOT of issues, as others who have built this kit have found out already.  I think I have the perfect solution, but I'll need a few more days to see if my idea works.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Canopy open or closed Chuck?  I'll be interested to see your solution for an open one.

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10 minutes ago, mozart said:

Canopy open or closed Chuck?  I'll be interested to see your solution for an open one.

 

Open for sure Max.  There's no point doing all that work in the cockpit if I cover it up.  When I discovered the open canopy problem I checked your build and sure enough, you had it too.  I then checked many other builds of this kit and found that every open cockpit looked wrong for the same reasons.  Your solution Max, was excellent!  I just want to try my own thing, as usual.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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On 2/3/2020 at 8:04 PM, chuck540z3 said:

I love experimenting and trying new things, which spices up the build journey.  Sometimes I win and sometimes I crash and burn, but when things work out for the better, the whole effort is very rewarding.  

 

Well, it was about to happen sooner than later, this time with my canopy experiment!

 

First the problem that I was trying to fix, as I discussed with Max directly above.  This kit is made to have the canopy totally closed, which is a real shame after adding a lot of detail in the cockpit.  For reference, this is what the canopy looks like in the closed position on the real deal.  Note that the canopy frame is almost perfectly flush with the sides of the fuselage.

 

 

AVJRfH.jpg

 

 

From above.  What is hard to see is that the canopy is slightly tapered from front to back, with the front section wider than the rear.  The front canopy section slides on a groove on the side, while the rear section slides on groove at the top of the cockpit sill.

 

 

HUcXkw.jpg

 

 

And here are two pics of it open.  The canopy is made of a windscreen, a rear glass portion and 3 main canopy sections, with the central one fixed.  The front section is slightly larger than the second fixed one and slides over it, while the rear one is smaller than the second and slides under it.

 

 

YR8jEy.jpg

 

fjPQIg.jpg

 

 

I want this canopy open, like the pics above.  Here’s the kit canopy parts resting on the cockpit sill, which is almost exactly 2.5 cm (1”) wide, front to back.  The widest one at the front is too narrow already, while the rear one can barely rest on the sill without falling into the cockpit.  If the cockpit sill was tapered front to back like it should be, this would be less of a problem.  Even if you glued these pieces on in the closed position, as the instructions call for, you need to stretch the parts to meet the sill edges.

 

 

7qRRSB.jpg

 

 

Here’s the front, middle and aft canopies from left to right.  If I just stack these parts in the middle section of the cockpit, things should look OK, right?

 

 

KC8tS0.jpg

 

 

Unfortunately, they don’t stack very well since they weren’t meant to, so the solution would be to shave off a bit of the bottom of the middle and rear sections, so that they all fit flat on the cockpit sill.

 

 

hu45vV.jpg

 

 

These parts are still too narrow across, so they need to be made a bit wider, which could be done in two ways:

 

1)   I use small shims in the cockpit to hold them in place.  I want to add a slider rail to the front and back canopy sills anyway, so this shim could be incorporated into that and look reasonably natural.

 

2)   I stretch the clear plastic so that it fits the sill, eliminating the need for shims.

 

#2 would be easier, but also dangerous.  Anybody who has stressed a canopy while sanding off a seam line knows what can happen:  Shatter marks!  Clear plastic is so much harder than the other kit parts and it doesn’t like to be stressed or it cracks, but what if I heated it first?  Time to experiment again, with boiling water and a heat gun.

 

 

Fortunately, I have some spare clear canopy parts to play around with first, in this case the windscreen from an F-14.  I left it in a cup of boiling water for a full minute, then gently pulled the outer edges apart.  The plastic spread nicely, but then this happened.  Crap!  It shattered, like it hadn’t been heated at all.

 

 

HBblRI.jpg

 

 

Next experiment was with a heat gun, which is dangerous in itself.  You can go from real warm to melted plastic in a nanosecond if you aren’t careful.  After carefully heating the plastic at the temperature of a fairly hot hair dryer, I played around with another spare windscreen and gently pulled it apart as well.  Success!  No cracks and it stretched about the amount I was looking for. 

 

Time for the Kitty Hawk canopy, so I started on the front portion that required the least amount of stretch.  After more gentle heating with the heat gun, it stretched with no shatter marks.  Success again!  This is easy!

 

I should have stopped right there.  While the clear part would stretch, it always settled a bit narrower than where I had stretched it to, so I heated the part again and stretched it slightly wider than where I wanted it to settle, which resulted in two things:

 

The front canopy is now the correct width….

 

 

sSQr1G.jpg

 

 

But the top shattered, just like the other part in hot water.  Damn!!  :BANGHEAD2:

 

 

XGOxwR.jpg

 

 

So it looks like I crashed and burned one more time, which reminds me of playing around with Goop as an adhesive in my P-38L build 5 years ago.  It melted half the nose!  Lol, I can laugh about it now, but I recall that it wasn’t very funny at the time.

 

 

5lRmRv.jpg

 

 

With nothing more to lose, I tried to heat the rear canopy part a little more than the front, to see if more heat might result in no shattering.  It does, but the part shriveled into a lump like cellophane over a candle, so that didn’t really work either.   Moral of the experiment?  NEVER heat clear plastic and expect it to bend without consequences!  Having said that, I bet that if I had 5 or 6 new canopies to experiment with, I could get a couple to work, but that is never going to happen. 

 

If anybody knows where I can order Kitty Hawk parts, please let me know, but in the mean time I just ordered another whole kit, just to get more canopy pieces (Sprue GP).  Thankfully this kit isn’t expensive and I don’t need these parts for several more weeks, so this build should be able to proceed as though it never happened.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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wow that did happen to my Raptor in 1/72 during the giod old days :) I tried to imagine the real plane flying throough the air by handling the model right in front of a fan heater... the airflow was very enjoyable, but after that the closed canopy accepted the shape of the seat and the ip hood. :d some of the plastic along the leading edges also softened. I use this model for tests and experiments now.

On to the topic, I also think a vacuformed canopy would be the best solution. 

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Regarding your landing lights Chuck, a solution I've used for years now is as follows and gives the correct type of inverted reflection you see in real lights.

 

Stretch some clear sprue to a thickness suitable to your needs.

Hold a clean, cut edge near a candle flame. 

As you move the sprue end closer to the flame, it'll form a ball and retreat.

As you bring the ball in closer it will enlarge.

Or burst into a puff of flame - trial and error will see you through.

Let it solidify then paint the spherical area silver and let dry.

You can then either drill or hot pin a hole for the bulb in the rear of the reflector to apply a drop of clear colour, or leave as is for white lights.

At this stage, I find it easier to glue the ball to a pre-painted and prepared mounting bracket or plate.

Snip off the sprue stub 'handle' then sand it to a convex round light lens and polish to clarity.

 

You'll never be stuck for light lenses again, as long as you have clear sprue and a candle!

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