Airfix 1:24 FW 190 A-5: Repairing the Windscreen

After a little workshop ‘accident’ I had to rebuild the windscreen using whatever I had lying around… in this instance a CD crystal case.

I’ve worked on the front windscreen and I’ve finished it, I just need to spray it after a very light sanding. It went easier than I thought the plastic from the jewel CD case was quite soft and the Tamiya extra thin cement did a wonderful job of gluing it in.

The hardest part was removing the damaged section and cleaning it up so I could glue in the replacement. I first packed out the front windscreen with Blue tack (a medium for sticking picture to walls etc.) to make the part a little more rigid and able to take the stress of the cutting out. Once I had it cut out I measured up the cut out piece and cut a piece of Tamiya masking tape that was slightly bigger than I needed and placed it on the jewel CD case. Then I filed the front windscreen down. The upper frame broke when I was cutting out the damaged piece but because of the blue tack it stayed put so I could glue it back once I had the replacement windscreen filed to shape. I then removed the blue tack, it was at this point that the windscreen re-broke along the original break line. I wasn’t to phased by it as I had already anticipated it might happen.

I glued the replacement back in and rebuilt the frame around it. Because the jewel case is thicker then the original part I thought it’d be a good idea to cut a new frame for it to provide some extra strengthening and to redefine the frame that was now effectively missing. So I got out my trusty dividers and plasticard and created a new piece. I marked out the frame and cut it from the plasticard, cutting away the opening first and then the outer edge of the frame to remove it from the plasticard sheet. I left the masking tape in place to provide some extra protection for the new part. I now need to mask off the both the inside and outside of the windscreen and paint it before I finally glue it into place.

 

by

Avid WW2 aviation enthusiast and modeller. Been making model kits since age nine and I now model mostly ww2 model airplanes. (my wife is an understanding one!)

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