corgi sepecat jaguar question

[aferguson]

i picked up the corgi gulf war jaguar and it's a great model....but, the pilot is driving me nuts. He is sitting waaay too low in the cockpit and his little pink face is just gleaming at me. The only way to fix it is to take the canopy off but i'm very apprehensive about doing so. It looks very firmly attached and i'm afraid of scratching/breaking it while trying to remove it. Has anyone tried it? Any advice?

[tmanthegreat]

I've not removed the canopies on Corgi planes, but have done so a number of times on Oxford Diecast models and even some FOV models.

Basically, you want to use something thin, like an exacto knife, and work it under one side of the canopy. Then gently rock the knife back and forth carefully. Repeat on the other side. With a bit of patience - and luck - you can often pry off the canopy piece. Sometimes you might wind up snapping one of the little pegs or you might not... Trick is simply to pry off with the knife slowly and carefully.

If you do happen to snap one of the pegs and the canopy will not fit back in place securely, glue it back using a tiny amount of CYANOACRYLATE glue with an accelerator chemical. My local hobby store sells a type of cyanoacrylate glue called Super-Gold+, made by BSI, Inc (www.bsi-inc.com) that is more liquid than thickened CA glue and requires use of an accelerator chemical, called Insta-Set, to dry. I've found it to be superior to regular CA glue for quickly and securely holding something together. The instacure chemical will dry after a few minutes and not leave a residue.

[aferguson]

thanks Tman. I've removed canopies from other models too. But this Jaguar......it's on so tight it doesn't have any give at all and the fit is so good there is almost no seam between canopy and plane. I couldn't get an exacto knife blade in there without really jamming in. I can't even slip a piece of paper in between canopy and fuselage. It's that tight.

Skymax canopies are made from a very strong and flexible plastic so you can be rough with them without fear. Easy Model are very brittle and break easily. I have no experience with Corgi canopies so i don't know what kind of plastic they are. I'm very concerned about shattering the canopy or badly scratching the model in any attempt to pry off the canopy.

But that little guy's pink face is still gleaming at me...

[tmanthegreat]

I've always liked the fact that Corgi put figures in their aircraft models (especially in the WWII heavy bombers) as they give the model a better sense of realism when you can see the pilots and crew through the windows. Still, Corgi never really did make great figures in 1:72, especially in their modern aircraft. I guess their line of thought is that these are tiny figures in tiny spaces, so who is really going to be concerned with their detail? Well, some people are...

I like the route that Hobby Master and Century Wings have taken with opening canopies and removable pilot figures on their 1:72 planes. Just makes things more fun