Enter keywords or a search phrase below:
I am building the 1/48 scale Minicraft Black Hawk helicopter for the family of a pilot who was just sent to iraq for a year. A friend of his asked me to build it so his children can see what their father flies. The instructions call for two small windows in the overhead part of the windshield to be tinted green. I have read several posts about tinting but all call for dipping the entire windshield into the tint. My question is can the combination of Future and food coloring which people use be brushed on or do I just leave the entire windshield clear. When I was asked to build the Black Hawk, the friend said he would pay me. I refused, telling him I won't even allow you to pay for the kit. I also told him to tell the family it is my way of saying thanks to someone serving our country.
Gordon,
Tamaya makes an acrylic transparent green that is perfect for this application. I've used it on several USCG helos & also for formation lights on other aircraft. Mask off the canopy, leaving exposed the windows to be tinted, & brush it on. It has worked well for me. You can also get it in blue, red, & amber for other formation lights on aircraft.
"The difficult, I do right away. The impossible will take a little longer."
Oh yeah.......If you don't want to buy a bottle of paint (maybe this is a one time issue) you can always use a green sharpie marker, not quite the same, but cheap.
There are felt marking pens called highlighters that feature a quite transparent but tinted ink. I have used these on transparencies and they work okay, but the working time is short. I'd recommend practicing on a piece of the transparent sprue before actually marking on the transparent panels, so you can see the rate of buildup.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
Unless the clear part to paint is very small, I never had any luck with Tamiya clear colors and a brush. Is a matter of personal choice, but to get an even coverage I prefer to go with the airbrush.
I am going to try the felt pen method. The closest hobby shop which sells Tamiya paints is a two hour drive. Thanks for the very helpful tips.
Future and food coloring is your best option. A marker is not reversible without a lot of additional work. F/FC can be removed with a little Windex. If you don't want to paint, dip it. Dip as many times as it takes (letting each dip cure) to get the color consistency you want. Go too far, just remove it and start again. Its best to leave the clear parts on their sprue while doing this as it gives you something to hold on to during the process. Then all you have to do is remove them, remove any F/FC where cement is necessary to achieve a bond and you're all set.
Gerald "Hawkeye" Voigt
http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/
"Its not the workbench that makes the model, it is the modeler at the workbench."
By far your best bet is as suggested, Future and food coloring. The canopies generally need a dip anyway, so it might as well be tinted, right? I use 35mm film cans for mixing/storing my clear colors. They hold 1oz, and 5 drops of food coloring should be about right for a single dip. With the four colors you get in a box, I can mix any clear color I need, including the gold tones for F-16's, A-6/EA-6's and S-3's, the brown smoke tint, and if you need a gray clear there's black food coloring. Why spend $3 for a bottle of paint when you can make your own for about $.25? Building this model for the kids is a good idea I think.
Why isn't phonics spelled like it sounds?
Gordon D. K ing.
If the windows are as small as you describe why not glue a small piece of GREEN sweet wrapper onto the windows again cheap but affective.
SNAKE.
Gordon D. King I am going to try the felt pen method. The closest hobby shop which sells Tamiya paints is a two hour drive. Thanks for the very helpful tips.
Check Hobby Lobby if you got one close... They sell a water-soluable airbrush paint "Createx" that's transparent and comes in four of five different colors... Black, Blue, Green, Red, and Yellow, IIRC..
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.