Clear Plastic packages

 I use it quite a bit to thermo-form new canopies, especially when they are molded as one piece, but I want it open. Some of them seem to use different formulas for the plastic, some heat up and "smash mold" beautifully, while some just get a big hole melted in them (pop bottles, for example don't work).

 Last year, for X-mas, I bought my wife a perfume set, just so I could get the huge clear plastic cover....stuff works awesome!!!

 Last year, for X-mas, I bought my wife a perfume set, just so I could get the huge clear plastic cover....stuff works awesome!!!

Aww - True Love and the Spirit of Giving are in the air.

The biggest challenge for most using those blister paks is getting them affixed to the model.

In the past I have taken those glass microscope slide covers and used them for flat window panes. One has to mark, score and snap (cut) to the proper shape then install. I use watch crystal cement. I will say its easier if the model is 1:48 or larger in scale. Perfect way to get accurate crystal clear glass for many of the German WWII stuff such as the nose of a Do17.

Has anyone tried using the clear plastic ...

Oh yeah.. Been using the stuff for years & years... Especially good for AFV periscope lenses, windows, broken windows, and those with bullet holes in them in diorama structures, and for jeep/truck windshields...

For canopies, I use a Mattel Vac-U-Form and the pre-fab plastic card meant for use in it (but it's the same material as the blister packs, which is ABS I think)...  MEK and Tenax are good adhesives for it if you need strength, and don't care if it fogs.  If you're careful, use a fan, and payattention to direction of the airflow, you can avoid fogging/crazing it with MEK...

However, for most flat panes in aircraft, it's just as easy (or even easier, since you can do it after assembly and painting) to use Testor's Clear Plastic Cement or Elmer's Glue to make small fuselage windows...

yes we do !

Just as a tip, onto architects supplies store they have clear sheets in various format that comes at really low price. Are a little more thick than packages ones . To me seems perfect for heatforming. Heres a result

left original piece and right the copy

MSgtMJ62

Has anyone tried using the clear plastic that most products are sealed in for making windows or replacing broken/lost clear parts?

Haven't had the need to fabricate a window with this stuff, but I have started saving some just in case I need it later.  I've lost a couple of those little bitty clear windows before as I'm sure some of you have to over the years. So I figure this stuff ought to work out ok.

Mike

Yes.  I also save the clear plastic pieces used with my dress shirts, to keep the collars shaped in the package.  I've used that stuff to make windows and other clear parts, as well as templates for scratchbuilding.  It seems to be very close in composition to the clear plastic used in blister and window packaging.

I haven't tried using it to thermoform or vacuform anything, only because I haven't actually used those techniques yet

bsyamato

yes we do !

Just as a tip, onto architects supplies store they have clear sheets in various format that comes at really low price. Are a little more thick than packages ones . To me seems perfect for heatforming. Heres a result

left original piece and right the copy

Good results, Yamato, but you lose scratchbuilding points for having bought the material instead of salvaging material you would have otherwise thrown out

effectively i don't payed these sheets  was given from architects as other media actually stored as some balsa wood planks.

Just lucky i'm working with architects and my work contribuited to avoid real dioramas for projects.

btw the advantage of these sheets are the dimension and areready for who have vacu machines to put on withouth othe cuts

MSgtMJ62

Has anyone tried using the clear plastic that most products are sealed in for making windows or replacing broken/lost clear parts?

Absolutely, Mike!

I used the clear plastic from a box of blueberries that I bought in the produce section to make the rear windows on this Mach 1 Mustang.  They don't come in the box, and I had to build them in with strip and BMF foil to chrome them. I glued them in with white craft glue.

Very nice, Doog!  Did you have to warm the clear plastic at all, to get the curved shape?  I've done that already, using warm water.

Baron,

Actually, the rear window is just a triangular piece of plastic set in the simple "frame" which is just a piece of square styrene rod, and not curved at all. I haven't tried curving it at all.

However, if I did, I would probably use Plastruct styrene clear, which you can get in big clear sheets at the LHS, si8mply because it's purpose-made for hobbies. I don't know how this packaging plastic might act in hat capacity.

Thanks, Doog!  I misunderstood, I thought you meant the rear windshield itself.

My shirt plastic worked well enough for the windows on a very awful Russian kit of a Studebaker truck in 1/72.  Horrendous fit, and no clear parts.  I cut the front and rear windshields, and the vent windows, from a piece of that plastic.  The front windshield needed a gentle curve to it, and warm water worked pretty well.  But that's as far as any experimenting has gone.

I don't know how this packaging plastic might act in hat capacity.

About the same, Doog... ABS and acetate both need a "hot" cement..

Just be careful - some of them tend to get yellow over time - that could make your model look kinda off after a few years (and time flies when you're havin' fun!). Happened to me a few times. Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Just be careful - some of them tend to get yellow over time - that could make your model look kinda off after a few years (and time flies when you're havin' fun!). Happened to me a few times. Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

when was teenager replaced a bf-109 canopy with packages plastic but turned yellow as you said Pawel, but at the time i did not use clear coats to protect canopies. I hope a clear protection could be enough to avoid the yellowing oldest thermoformed parts actually i have, are from 2006 but no yellow pop up till now

bsyamato

Pawel:

Just be careful - some of them tend to get yellow over time - that could make your model look kinda off after a few years (and time flies when you're havin' fun!). Happened to me a few times. Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

 

when was teenager replaced a bf-109 canopy with packages plastic but turned yellow as you said Pawel, but at the time i did not use clear coats to protect canopies. I hope a clear protection could be enough to avoid the yellowing oldest thermoformed parts actually i have, are from 2006 but no yellow pop up till now

Hi, Yamato, unfortunately, I don't think that will help.  The yellowing is a gradual chemical reaction in the plastic itself, it takes place as the plastic ages.  You can see a similar discoloring in plastics of other colors, too, as they age.

mmm then a cryogenic room is needed to keep finished models alive, checking what ebay offers

On the planes i used rarely this tecnique but on 90% of my mechs have some heatformed clear parts for the heads, included the one in my badge. It's not a good new