Fitting acetate to window frames?

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Is there a good trick to fitting sheets of acetate to curved window frames? I am working on my DeAgostini Falcon and the windows in the kit are atrocious, toylike garbage. I'm trying to cut panes of clear acetate to fit them, but it's hard to get a good fit and it's starting to test my patience. I was hoping there was a good trick to making window panes that fit the frames exactly.

[Kylwell]

No tricks, just sand or file to fit. About the only trick is laying tape across the frame, mark where the frame is, then remove the tape & lay it flat. But that'll only give you rough dimensions. After that it's file to fit.

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Okay, so that leads into another question. After cutting it, what's the best way to get it to match the curve? I thought about taping it to the side of the cockpit cone and then running hot water over it, but after doing some tests I found that it was tricky to get a good temperature for this. If it's not hot enough, it didn't curve at all, and if it was too hot the piece would warp and get wavy, indicating uneven heating. Also, it ended up shrinking on me slightly, making it no longer fit, and just rolling it in my hand proved unsuccessful.

[Kylwell]

I prefer the "roll it between two rollers". This can be as simple as placing the material over a rod or tub of the right diameter and rolling in between thumb & forefinger. This can be tricky on smaller parts so you may end up rolling a larger piece and then cutting it down.

[Andrew Gorman]

Vacuform them using the original parts as a master. Fill them with clay or plaster to act as a heat sink, or make a plaster copy. I have melted styrene masters in a Mattel vacuform machine, so be careful.

[naoto]

Vacuform them using the original parts as a master. Fill them with clay or plaster to act as a heat sink, or make a plaster copy. I have melted styrene masters in a Mattel vacuform machine, so be careful.

Do be careful with plaster -- reaction is exothermic (i.e. gives off heat) --- used to have a toy back in the 1970s where you'd mix up a batch of plaster and pour into mold (the set I had molds for cars -- around 1/43 or 1/32 scale). The plaster came in pre-measured quantity in plastic bag, which you were instructed to cut one edge, then pour a specified amount of water, mix (instructions had you fold over the cut edge, then knead the bag), then pour the mixture into the mold. I vaguely recall that the instructions didn't make it entirely clear that the plaster would heat up as it begins to set up -- it gets *really* hot (probably enough to suffer some minor burns). If I'm not mistaken, that's probably the reason the toy didn't stay in the market too long.
https://www.thoughtco.com/plaster-of-pa ... on-3976095

[Andrew Gorman]

True- some do get very hot, especially straight plaster of paris. I usually use Durhams Water Putty or patching plaster which stays pretty cool. It's there mainly as a heat sink. As always, do some research and try it in an inconspicuous location.