While this is not my favorite modeling medium, I decided to bite the bullet and add a photoetch cockpit to the Hasegawa P2V I'm building. I've read some of the tutorials online, but have never done PE on this scale, so I'd like to post some questions about this here. So please forgive my ignorance!

1. The instrument panel is in two parts, a backing and the the part of the panel that will actually be seen. What type of adhesive is used to secure the pieces together? And then what is used to glue the photoetch panel to the kit part?

2. The P2V's throttles are in a quadrant attached to the ceiling, which is part of the canopy. Once folded, the PE quadrant is glued to the inside of the canopy, but there is not much surface to glue to, so what can I use to hold that in place without damaging the clear canopy? Does anyone place some kind of doubler or backing in quadrants like that to have something to glue to?

3. And last - what do you use to cut the parts from the "sprues"?

Thanks in advance for the help. Looking forward to the answers...

Hi Jaime,

1. For photoetch I always use Flexy 5k CA glue. Tiniest drop does the trick.

2. If you have varnished the clear part already then Flexy (above) is fine and doesn’t fog. The only thing you use to fix to an unvarnished canopy is white wood glue or even use a dab of fture (ask me how I know these things...). Wood glue will hold UNLESS you start running around the room with your build making aircraft noises (again ask how I know...)

3. A brand new blade (has to be new - you can keep one specially) on the exacto knife does the trick but you have to get in really close to the part and cut it leaning on something hard so there’s no ‘give’.

I think David's answers will do the trick - I used the same methods - they work.

Jaime, I don't use a lot of PE but I use CA or solder to attach one piece to another, Future to attach it to instruments and canopies and or PVA, CA to other things !