Real Warbirds : Fact or Fiction ?

lawdog114

 

 

Tanker - Builder

Much of the Plexi was fatigue and solar starred . It was , I was told , All original except a few pieces needed for safety . i.e. Cockpit windshields .

 

 

 

...........and exactly why I don't polish my canopies and such.  It doesn't look right.  Interesting tread.

 

If I am not weathering the rest of the plane, I may clean up the canopy.  However, if the model depicts a war-weary, weathered bird with 20 mission symbols on it, I think a pristine canopy or windscreen looks ridiculous.  It also depends on the age of the subject.  WW2 era plexiglas had no where near the UV resistance that modern stuff has, so a contemporary bird may have more weathering on paint and such and still have a decent finish on transparencies.  On civil aircraft, business jets and airliners kept the stuff clean, but many private planes were pretty foggy.

I can remember miracle polish stuff that was supposed to easily wipe away haze.  People hated it.  When I bought an old plane in the seventies I tried the latest stuff- never worked.  Had to replace windscreen but I found a great almost-like-new one in aircraft junk yard :-)

Hmm;

 Sorry it took so long to come back . When I re-built my J-4 I had to get a new Cockpit glass . Talk about expensive . I finally had one made by TAP Plastics in California .

 I found plexi for the bigger Bird in a warehouse at Davis-Monthan AFB