1:72 F-15E Vacu Canopy & Mask

A clear canopy for the two-seat Eagle

The Strike Eagle is the strike offshoot of the F-15 fighter which the US Air Force ordered for attacking ground targets at night in any weather. The prototype flew in December 1986, the first units took it over two years later, and the machine showed itself in earnest over the Iraqi desert in 1991, when it hunted mobile ballistic missile launchers with targeting pods. You will tell it from the single-seat versions by its tandem cockpit with the weapon systems officer in the rear and by the conformal fuel tanks fitted to the sides of the fuselage.

An injection-molded canopy tends to be a weak point on small models. It has a thick wall, it refracts light and the view into a well-appointed cockpit loses out by it. A part drawn over a mold is by contrast as fine as film, optically clean, and in the slid-back position it does not look like a slice of plastic. The difference shows most on the frame of the windscreen, where an injection-molded part never gets down to the thickness of a vacuum-formed membrane.

Masks are also included for the glazing frames, so the dividing lines do not have to be traced with tape and cut out freehand.

Working with a vacuum-formed part has its rules. It is cut out with a large margin, the edge is leveled on a board with fine sandpaper and tried dry on the fuselage as you go, until the canopy seats without a gap. You can always take more off, never put it back, so it pays to take it off in small amounts and rather try twice than over-sand once. A degreased surface is the condition for the enclosed masks to hold on the membrane.