8178 gave me the task of copying Ron Ellis's Blue Angel canopy for his build and he suggested I do a thread on it. Bearing in mind that how I plan to copy it has not yet produced a plug from which I can vacuum form useable canopy's I'll document the process as I proceed.

Ron sent me his MK kit canopy which just might be the last one in existence. And that carries a responsibility to use a process that will minimize the risk to it.

Here's the plan:

1. make a silicone female mold of the MK canopy (two reasons for using silicone are that the cure process creates very little heat which is less likely to warp the original – the second reason is that the mold silicone doesn't adhere well to much other than itself and Vaseline works well as a release for it).

2. make a male vacuum form plug using the silicone mold and urethane resin (plaster could be used but I have urethane casting resin on hand and I'm familiar with using it with silicone molds)

3. prepare the urethane plug and start pulling canopy's.

To be continued.