Which gloss coat for canopies?

If you sand your canopy, whether due to scratch removal or whatever, you WILL cause it to haze over. You can sand with finer and finer pads until you are polished, but that is A LOT of work. There are two ways to go here. 

ONE, you can live with the scratch and dip the canopy in Pledge "Future" and let it dry. This works pretty well most of the time. Probably the most common method.

TWO, you can aquire a product from Meguiar's Plast-X polish. You polish the canopy with it and rub it off and it will work wonders on plastic of any type. It is quite amazing stuff. It will remove hazing also. I don't know if you have access to it, but it is commonly sold in automotive stores/sections.

BK

I have some polishing pastes that were for an old iPod. They work really well to bring the shine back  Then I cover with future

Why do we want a shiny canopy?

Haptesthai

 Hello;

 I am living in a country where nothing is available. What would work for hiding scratches, making the canopy shiny etc.?

 Would Tamiya Clear Gloss work? (I have one 23ml, one 10 ml bottle of it)

 Would you recommend this product? http://www.amazon.com/SC-Johnson-Pledge-Multi-Surface-Finish/dp/B000ARPH4C/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1460806833&sr=8-1&keywords=Future+clear

 Or, can I just wetsand it with 2000grit sandpaper?

 

I don't know how the Tamiya product will work, because I've never used it.

Yes, I recommend Future, and yes, sanding using 2000 grit, but along with other grades.  As it was noted in the other post, you'll want to use a sequence of successively finer grits, and then, the clear acrylic fills in the fine scratches left by the polishing process, rendering the polished plastic clear.  I have a set of polishing pads, that go from 1800 grit to 3600; I think it's a Tamiya product, but you can find other brands.  I use them for this same task, cleaning or repairing scratches on clear pieces.

I don't think anybody has mentioned these, the buffers women use for their nails, work really well for removing scratches, I have used them on canopies, they remove scratches very fast, you can fix scratches on canopies and any other plastic parts with these in no time, plus it makes it easier for preparing the surface for a good NMF finish too. If you have not tried it I would use it before applying clear coats.

Use Alclad Kristal coat  Clear.Try it on a practice canopy part.Brush on w/ a soft paint brush.You will like the result.

Also .Never sand your canopy.If it's scratched.Its scratched.Replace it.Light distortions will come out w/ automotive rubbing compound car wax.The most important parts to an aircraft model kit is the canopy.My opinion:

Regarding how the canopy should look, I would say that if you are building a WWII warbird, it should not be nice and shiny given the conditions these aircraft operated in. Same for Korea and Vietnam era aircraft. Modern warbirds may have specialized canopies, golden tinting or darkened, like you will see on an F-22. Then if you are doing a civilian subject like an airliner, I would think those windows would be more likely to be clean and even shiny.

Haptesthai

@Don Stauffer How should a new plane's canopy look like? Others; thanks for replying. Since Future is not available where I live (there are some LHS that sell a 27oz bottle for $45 though) I will get tamiya polishing compounds and some sandpapers finer than 2000 grit

 

Ah, for a new plane the canopy should indeed be glossy. I was merely sniping a bit about one of those things that bother me, a WW2 warbird heavily weathered, with no surface lacking grunge- except the canopy.  Sure, it could happen- maybe the canopy got shot up on the last mission and had been replaced, but when I see a shiny canopy or greenhouse on a heavily weathered bird, it looks strange to me.  Older plexiglas, up to about Korean war era, were susceptible to UV and attempts to make them UV proof weren't that successful.  And plexiglas scratches very easily, so dust and other abrasions took their toll.

You are right .But the I.P.M.S.dont think like that.Thats the problem about modeling.I have flown combat military aircraft and all of my Canopy had distortions and Side chips.Not crustal clear.

Silver

Also .Never sand your canopy.If it's scratched.Its scratched.Replace it....

I disagree, or rather, I agree, up to a point.

I agree, that there is some damage to the part, that sanding will not correct.  Deep scratches or cracks.  But for light scratches, sanding and a dip in a clear acrylic absolutely will restore the original.  By "sanding", I mean applying a sequence of successively finer grits, to the point at the end of the process where we really are talking about polishing.  I have used this technique myself, for light scratches, that didn't go very deep, and for cleaning up places where glue had attacked the plastic.

In a country where you can't get anything,can you get toothpaste? As plain as can be will work on mild scratching. And I agree wholeheartedly with Dons view point.

Oh, man! I wish I had a picture!

I have had a canopy split in two down the middle. I was able to reglue it with Tamiya Extra Thin, and then sand and polish out the repair very carefully starting with 300 grit sandpaper and then finer and finer. After hitting 12,000 grit, I polished it out with toothpaste and finished with a dip in Future. Although not invisible, from 3 feet away you can't tell a thing. So massive repairs to a canopy CAN be done.

I probably could have ordered a replacement, but I'm a cheap SOB.  LOL

--Chris