The Little World

A recent build of another Airfix Vintage Classic kit – a Westland Whirlwind helicopter – pointed out the perils of remoulding 1950’s models. The clear plastic on that one was appalling.

This Vintage Classic is of a newer year – 1971 – and the clear parts have improved immensely. But they are still just the production of the era and require both care and forgiveness. Come to think of it, that describes me…

The parts are clear enough, though there is a thickness and a waviness about them that mean they will never be perfect. However, they are there in the kit and fill the spaces. It is just a matter of treating them as well as you can. And being wary of windows in the first place.

Wary? Well windows can be fogged with styrene cement, cyanoacrylic cement, or just plan dirty fingerprints. They can be mis-applied or cemented in so feebly that they fall out into the fuselage as you work on other parts. Don’t get me started about the masking and painting…

I take the cementation very seriously. I carefully clean the inside of the window frame to make sure that it is free of paint – as long as the base plastic colour is close to what the final outer finish or interior colour is. Then I trial-fit the windows and note whether they are flush with the outer surface – sanding if not.

The windows at this stage are picked up with a small blob of artist’s gum eraser on the blunt end of a cocktail stick. Makes them easier to handle and keeps the fingerprints away.

The inside of the frame is lightly licked with cement, let to sit for 20 seconds, and then the window pressed into place. The gum eraser stick is gently twisted away. Then a minute touch of clear thin cement from a brush applicator in the inside makes sure there is a cement seal.

But wait – there’s more. Those cement seals are minute – so I wait until they’ve set and then run a thin bead of PVA cement around the inside of the window. This has a resilient bond, rather than a brittle one. And you cannot see much of it, even if you waver a little. Let it all set and you’re safe to close the fuselage or cockpit.