1/72 Coronado flying boat

[philo426]

[philo426]

[chuck]

Vacuform? I've never successfully completed one of those. I have a couple of RarePlanes that are in various states of "assembly". U-2 got close till I lost track of one half of one wing. Vulcan Bomber got the mail fuselage halves done but crapped out on the engine intakes and cockpit.

[philo426]

Yes they require a different skill set but I know how so they are not a huge deal!

[healey36]

Vacuform is nearly a lost art. I built, or attempted to build, a few back in the day, but now there are so many injection-molded kits, even for some of the most obscure airplanes, vacuform seems unnecessary (unless you do it for the challenge). Seeing them done well is still remarkable to me.

[philo426]

I like em because you can often get them cheap!

[chuck]

I like how they are almost the correct thickness so landing gear doors don't look like tank amour plate.

The later RarePlanes kits have excellent surface details but you need to know how to get the parts off the sheet (belt/disk sander helps) without making a mess. There is also the issue of the cockpit and landing gear.

I still have the U2 and may try to kitbash it and an MPC injection molded kit I found at a train show. The one complete wing I have is incredibly thin/prototypical. No idea what happened to the other half of the second wing. The injection molded kit's wings look like they belong on a 707. The F-86 has everything but the canopy and I have a really messed up Vought Cutlass. The "pods" for the vertical stabilizers and landing gear do not match up with the holes in wing where they are supposed to go. Someone really messed up with the molds. It's going to take a lot of shimming and puttying to get it even close to correct. In the meantime Fuji made an excellent injection molded kit.

Since the plastic is so thin, gluing also becomes a bit of an issue. I use methylene chloride for most injection molding but it tends to be too hot for that scale of vacuform. Tube glue is out and I tend to stay away from cyano's unless I have no choice. The instant set is too fast and the slow set too slow. On larger models where I did use it I would go with slower setting and spray on an accelerant.

[philo426]

I used Testors liquid cement ...grabbed fast and bonded securely.

[chuck]

Black triangular "dispenser bottle" or the glass bottle with brush with the orange label?

[philo426]

Black Triangular bottle

[chuck]

Thanks. I had some of that but stopped using it when I ran across Tenax 7R (which turned out to be 100% methylene chloride).

I have the Testors MSDS and the ingredients are Xylene, N Butyl Acetate, Ethyl Benzene, Toluene, Naptha, and Polystyrene.

The "no tox" blue label is basically citrus oil and usually makes quite a mess. I have left many fingerprints in styrene while trying to use it. I almost never seems to set completely. I suspect that's because it is "oil" based.

I'll have to see if I still have a bottle of the black stuff that hasn't dried up and run some tests on it. It would be nice to have something that is a little less aggressive than methylene chloride. Tamiya extra thin (green label) is 50/50 mixture of Acetone (methyl methyl keytone) and Butyl Acetate.

[philo426]

Just don't put it on too thick!

[philo426]

Applied the Bondo Automotive Spot Putty.

[philo426]

[philo426]