Eduard 1/48 Lysander - Clear Parts Troubleshooting

Well this kit really is presenting a series of challenges. I've said before that you forget that this is a limited run kit at your peril and there'll be more on that in a later post but the problems with the clear parts don't come into this category because my suspicion is that this is about the moulding process.

The problem is, no pun intended, pretty clear. In order to get a nice finish on clear parts as well as some protection and grip during the painting process I usually dip them into some Klear. This is a pretty standard procedure which is repeated by thousands of modellers the world over. I usually do this early in the build in order to give the Klear plenty of time to harden, preferably a few weeks, because this avoids dealing with finger prints in semi-hardened Klear. Been there, done that.

With this in mind I set about dipping the many pieces of the canopy for the Lysander into some Klear, only for it to pool really quite badly. The resultant mess was semi-opaque, uneven and highly visible. To add insult to injury it even got worse as it dried and you can get some impression of the problem in the image below, although it looked worse in reality.

I wouldn't be happy with this under any circumstances but with an aircraft possessing such prominent and extensive glass I needed to address this problem. Before getting to that I spent time wondering why this had occurred in the first place in order to avoid it in future. The only time this has happened before was with the clear parts for the Eduard 1/4 Bf109 Instrument Panel which I completed about a year ago. At that point I was using Humbrol Clear for the first time since this had just been released and was being lauded to the skies as the first worthy replacement for the previous incarnation of Klear. Unfortunately when I dipped those clear parts into the Humbrol product I got exactly the same pooling and ended up stripping the whole thing away and starting again. It wasn't a fun process but I got there in the end. I assumed that the problem lay with the Humbrol Clear but it might be that I was being unfairly critical because here I am with another set of Eduard clear parts and despite getting perfectly reasonable results with Klear on other canopies, including the one for the Eduard Spitfire, I have exactly the same problem. Could it be that this is a reaction to a fluid which is used in the moulding process?

I should say categorically that I'm not pointing the finger of blame here, I'm just trying to work out how to avoid further problems. I'll try washing clear parts in warm and soapy water next time around and we'll see if that makes a difference.

Whatever the case, there remains the issue of the clear parts for the Lysander. The solution lies with a combination of methods, starting with sanding back the Klear. 'Sanding clear parts? Are you mad?' I hear you cry, or maybe I don't, but actually using sanding sponges of different grades makes all the difference.

The sanding sponges pictured above are from Master Casters but there are numerous others out there. I started with the curved sander, which is 280 grit, moving consistently back and forth in the same direction rather than in circles. Of course the raised areas marking the canopy frame present a difficulty, both because of the detail one doesn't want to lose and the fact that they make it more difficult to get to the area of glass which is in need of sanding. The result is a tendency to polish the raised areas more than anything else, yet these will be covered in paint eventually and so don't need polishing. There's no way around this, however, so it's a question of just getting on with it.

The grey sander was followed by the white sander, which is 600 grit. This was used in the opposite direction, cutting across the scratches created by the previous sander, until those scratches had disappeared. Then came the block sander which includes different grades ranging from 8,000 to 12,000. Starting with 8,000 I again changed direction to cut across the lines of the 600 grit sander and continued this through the various grades, finishing with 12,000 which is actually a polisher. The result is shown above and this really makes the problem presented by the frame patently apparent because the frame lines are great but the glass is still quite foggy. Nonetheless, the Klear had been removed and this was the main aim, with the polishing simply being an attempt to restrain the damage. On a canopy without such prominent framing, such as a blown hood, the polishing would have been more effective.

This is where the miracle of Tamiya Polishing Compound comes in because this stuff is simply marvellous. I've found it difficult to get hold of the entire three-part series and it's quite expensive when it can be found but the Fine grade of the Compound is excellent on its own. The image below was taken after the compound had been applied several times, often using a circular motion. Any excess can be washed off with water but you don't get much of that because most of it is used in the polishing.

The photograph doesn't really do justice to the difference the polisher made, although it does present the very real issue that there was still some fogging.

On to the final part of the solution then, and this involved taking the risk of repeating the Klear layer. Ok so this was a calculated risk but I admit I held my breath a bit when I dipped the parts into the solution. I needn't have worried because, as the image below shows, I got bright and sparkly parts which look the way I wanted them to look the first time around.

The Klear appears to level out the surface, it sorts out any remaining problems with scratches and provides a good base for further painting. Is it perfect? No, but it's better than the surface which was created by the first layer of Klear. Clearly there was something on the surface because the second attempt was fine which rather suggests that my theory about washing the parts in future might be the way to go. So, a sigh of relief and these parts will now be left to dry for some time.

Zigerastica