Canopy masksing / painting tips

Hello Ulterior, and welcome to the forums.

Assumimg the canopy is seam and blemish free, the first thing I do is wash the canopy ( and all parts for that matter ) in dish soap and let air dry.   Then apply a coat ,by dipping the canopy , of Future acrylic liquid floor wax.  Let dry again overnight and mask .  Your 1st coat of paint should be the same as the interior color used ( zinc chromate primer in most cases )  then your extreior color over that.

That is a quick and simple explaination, more info can be gotten in the Painting and air brushing section of theses forums.  Happy modeling bro.

I use Kapton tape for masking canopies. Covers great with crisp edges, easy to trim, leaves no residue, resistant to chemicals and paints, has a slight stretch to fit around curved areas.

I use it to mask other areas as well. Comes in various widths. Seals against both raised and engraved panel lines by using a toothpick.

www.kaptontape.com/1_Mil_Kapton_Tapes.php

For masking, I use simple old masking tape from Walmart.  Cut it very thin--maybe a millimeter or even less--wide.  If you get the tape strip thin enough, it will follow around curves.  Then I apply it using the molded frame as a guide.  Use a sharp knife to trim things up after the tape is in place.  Then I use MicroMask to fill in the centers.

It can be tedious, but I usually get pretty good results.  And, of course, there are other ways out there.

Here are some photos of masking tasks I've done in the past, for illustrations.  Everything is 1/72, except for the Dauntlesses.  They are 1/700.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

Thanks to all, some really great tips out there!

I remember something about using parafilm?

Yeah ;

   That stuff will work , but I never had very good luck on plane Canopies with it .   T.B.

Then apply a coat ,by dipping the canopy , of Future acrylic liquid floor wax

Wondering what that accomplishes?

Future really makes the plastic canopy pop and look like glass. You can also dot the instrument dials on the I P with it to appear like glass lenses.  It can also be used as a gloss coat to seal decals and paint prior to weathering.

This is where i learnt how to mask canopies - and it works perfectly, but is time consuming.

www.swannysmodels.com/Canopies.html

Checkmating02's tip about filling the centre with masking solution is also gold.

TY for the excellent post on Swanny's Chris. There are  3 tips on there that  i didn't realize should be done but I will do on any sucessive models from now on, like coating with Future after masking as well, to seal the tape edges ,and doing the chipping and weathering before removing the tape.  The Goo-Gone tip is helpfull too.

Thanks for the link cml (Chris ?) that is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for!

I had to get Future off of amazon cause the stores here don't carry it, at least I haven't found it.

Goo Gone is awesome stuff, I use it for lots of clean up things.

I plan on trying the tips on my canopy for the A10, thanks again. Maybe I will post some progress pics.

Not to stray from the topic but is it okay to blow future polish through an air brush?

Will it:

A: No problem!

B: Not a good idea.

or

C: NO it will reduce your airbrush to a seething pile of goo !

I've had No problem shooting Future through an AB. you can even use it for your gloss sealing coat.

Silver

check out the company called "EZ Masks".Pre-cut masks. Google it .They are out of Canada.

 

Here ya go:

http://www.ezmasks.com/

EZ masks in use:

Sorry.Did not see that.Thats great.EZ mask is great

Jay Jay

You can also dot the instrument dials on the I P with it to appear like glass lenses.

I had never seen that suggestion before, but thought of it myself for a current build. The kit has decals for the instuments, so, Gloss Black, apply decals, seal with Future, then with a flat clear, and go back with the Future for the instrument glass. The Future over the decals (before the flat clear) may be overkill, but with my railroad models, gloss over the decals hides the edges the best, even with very fine Microscale decals. I'll rethink this once the guage decals are applied - if there are decal edges that need to be hidden, I'll gloss coat with Future. If not, I'll go directly to flat clear.

Any problem with the masking lifting the Future off the canopy? There's very little "tooth" for the Future to adhere to in a canopy.

Arved

Jay Jay

You can also dot the instrument dials on the I P with it to appear like glass lenses.

 I had never seen that suggestion before, but thought of it myself for a current build. The kit has decals for the instuments, so, Gloss Black, apply decals, seal with Future, then with a flat clear, and go back with the Future for the instrument glass. The Future over the decals (before the flat clear) may be overkill, but with my railroad models, gloss over the decals hides the edges the best, even with very fine Microscale decals. I'll rethink this once the guage decals are applied - if there are decal edges that need to be hidden, I'll gloss coat with Future. If not, I'll go directly to flat clear.

Any problem with the masking lifting the Future off the canopy? There's very little "tooth" for the Future to adhere to in a canopy.

Hi, Arved, the best answer I can give you, to your question about the masking material and Future, is to make sure you let the acrylic cure completely before applying the tape.  I will let the piece sit for at least 24 hours before applying masking--I use Tamiya tape, by the way.  But if something does happen to the acrylic, it's easy enough to touch it up by hand with a brush.  Also, a weak ammonia solution will remove the acrylic.  You'll see a lot of references here to using Windex, which is a weak ammonia solution.