[TopHat]

Originally Posted by STARMAN 352ND

Hey TopHat it worked for me.....I'm always doing things to fix the planes anyway.
Pappy it be great if you can post a picture of it first.
JP

It sounds like it would work as you say.... I have used hair dryer heat to tidy up the pallets/pylons on my CW Tomcats....

[PappyB]

Here's some pics... really hard to see what the issue may be but there's some roughness on the canopy frame near the hinge on the port side that could be causing the prob.

Thanks in advance for the helpful suggestions.



Potential trouble area is highlighted...




I can close by, as Skunky says, pulling the canopy forward after closing it... takes a few tries. Then, soon as the bird starts to sweep back its wings and nears supersonic --- "pop". Naturally, the pilots are a bit concerned about in-air catastrophic failures.





I've circled the area that may be the prob...





The tab that holds the canopy closed may be a bit smaller/more rounded than normal but it's really hard to see a difference between it and my other CW Turkeys...





Starboard side looks clean....

[STARMAN 352ND]

Originally Posted by PappyB

I've circled the area that may be the prob...

That area that you circled is what i was thinking too..I little xaco knife trimming may help that one.
Good luck at what you do to fix it.
JP

[SKUNKY]

Pappy, if the hair dryer and the scraping methods fail, don't worry about using white glue around the canopy. It won't harm a thing. The nice thing about white glue is you can wipe off any excess without marring anything else (even if it got onto the clear area), or after it dries you can even peel it off (which is why some model builders even use it as a liquid mask)...I even used white glue to seal my Phoenix pallets up tightly against my Sundowners Tomcat (held them in place with rubber bands overnight to dry) and it worked great.

Unlike with CA and other glues, you really can't mess up with white glue, the only tradeoff is that it just isn't as strong of a bond, but it would certainly be enough for what you want to accomplish..

[Shawn 507]

Just box it up and send it to me.

[smartd]

My post from another thread on sloppy CW F-14s:

.... I found weapons and conformal tanks sloppier than before, (pegs on in line with holes, fit, etc) At the store we went through 3 models to find a canopy that would close and stay closed.
First surprise for me was how easily the gear down option fit. In earlier versions we were scraping and rocking to get the parts in. The gear doors closed option would have required white glue to hold the doors in place.

I know these are plastic parts, but it made me wonder about the lifespan of the dies for the metal bodies.

[Louie]

I have the same problem with my VF-21 Lancers bird. I recently displayed it and as I was opening the canopy to insert the crew the canopy was hard to open at first and even harder to close flush. It popped up a few time then settled down. I don't want to mess with it. I am guessing the hinges are factory fresh and just need to be used and worn in.

Another thing I noticed on this model

Comparing this to the FOV model I noticed there is a considerably larger opening where the 2 wing parts rotate forward and back on the CW than on the FOV. There is nearly no gap it is pretty tight on the FOV bird. Clearly CW is a better model and I like FOV and for the money it is nearly identical and well worth the money. I hope FOV will do Jolly Rogers,Sundowners, and the rest. I think the canopy issue will work itself out over time . good luck.

[lanslide]

Originally Posted by Shawn 507

Just box it up and send it to me.

...or box it up and send it back...

[Dobber]

My VF-111 also did this, i can't remember how I got it to stay down though.

Chris

[Andrew]

All my tomcats that i can remember require a pull forward to close, and a push back to open. I'm not sure if its an actual problem, because I think its kinda neat since the same procedure is required on a REAL tomcat canopy.