One of the real weaknesses in the hobby when I was around 3 decades ago was polystyrene glass for canopies, windscreens/windshields, and windows in dioramas. The amount of great stuff that's been introduced is amazing, but the glass is still pretty #$%@ing bad.

At least back then, there was Vac-U-Form, which if imperfect, made some much better airplane canopies.

Are there any after-market glass options? What about you scratch builders?

have not tried this but I suspect if you poured any product designed to simulate water onto glass and keep it thin it should flow anyway, when cured cut to size and use for windows, the reason I state glass is because glass is a reflective medium and resins take up the surface property of what ever they are cured on. Please don’t take any of this as gospel it’s just me thinking of a possible solution.

I was reading a book about Lucasfilm and ILM's early work on the Star Wars trilogy not long ago. One thing they used for flat panes of glass was slide-glass used to cover specimens going under a microscope. If you did any microscope work in school, you might remember you would have a thicker piece of glass you would place your specimen on, and then a very thin piece of glass you would slide over the specimen to keep it flat.

I don't know off hand where you could buy this, but I do know it comes in various sizes and several sheets to a pack. If you can find this though, it would be perfect for flat glass on a model.


Another option are sheets of acetate. These are flat, clear sheets of plastic that are used primarily for writing on overheard projectors (another thing from school!), and were used by animators to draw their characters on so the background would show through to the camera. Probably any art or school/office supply stores would have these.

Bill
I have lately been using cd case plastic. Frenchy recommended it and it works great. As soon as I open the wrap I coat the exposed plastic with para film to help eliminate finger prints and scratches. It is still hard to shape and it will crack under any stress but it is armor thickness perfect.
Hope it works for you.
Bill

You can go ahead and complicate this all you want....it's simple, this is what I've used for years, it's the right thickness and seems to be everywhere....
Go buy a package of batteries, razorblades, woodscrews or anything else with a clear plastic cover (commonly known in the industry as 'blisterpack') on the packaging. You've probably thrown some in the trash already today. I've been using it for window glass for thirty years.
Acetate sheet indeed!

Well, I would still recommend acetate because it's cheap, and a single pack of 50 8-1/2" x 11" sheets should last you a lifetime for only $20. Then you don't need to be buying batteries or razor blades or whatever just to get small square of plastic.

Ditto

And almost everything now is in some type of packaging ( I've got tons of the stuff laying around - TONS) LOL

It is called cover slide the small piece of glass used to cover the sample under microscope.
I used both of them the cover slide and the microscope slide.

Cheap got it for work usually easy to cut and the thickness is really great for 1/35 scale the Microscope slide can be used to depict bull proof windows.

i hope it help
cheers
Seb

Thanks, Folks! This is great. I'm unsure about cutting real glass, and the blisterpack stuff is ubiquitous, so that might be the first stop. Acetate is also a good idea, since I have a charge account at Staples.

Bill