Huey cabin roof windows - how to paint them green?

Don't ever contact Italeri regarding spare parts.  It's a nightmare...

I've been going round and round asking if they can sell me spare cabin roof windows for the ESCI UH-1D I'm building.  First off they emailed me back with instructions for a 1/72 UH-1.  Now they've emailed me back, after I indicated the part numbers of the parts required, to tell me the kit is a 1/72 kit - which I had already pointed out to them twice and advised them I need the parts in 1/48.

I also asked if they take Visa Debit cards.  They're response, twice, is that they take only Visa and Mastercard.  Call me pedantic but that could mean they do take Visa Debit cards, or they only take Visa Credit cards.

I don't know if something is getting lost in translation, the guys who have been emailing aren't the best at using English, to be expected of course as they are Italian, but they don't seem to quite get the simple questions I've asked.

Anyhoo, I've emailed them back again today, again asking for clarification of whether they take Visa Debit cards, and I've also found their AB-205/UH-1D kit in 1/48 number 2621 and asked them to send me the instructions the same as they did for the 1/72 kit they sent me instructions for.  Hopefully they can and I can get somewhere with them.

I'm glad I'm buying the XM-23 weapons kit x2 from Cobra Company in a few weeks, otherwise I'd be going round in circles trying to get the door gun mount parts from Italeri as well.

I wish I was fluent in Italian, things might be a little easier, and I've thought about using Google Translate but I don't trust the accuracy and don't want to come across as moron trying to type a language I am not fluent in.

On the bright side, as previously mentioned (somewhere around here) I contacted Revell of America regarding spare cabin roof windows for their 1/48 Huey Hog kit that I have...

...and they're sending out the parts free of charge.  Don't quite know what they're sending yet as the notification email doesn't state exactly what the parts are, hopefully they'll send the entire windows sprue, but they're sending something.

Now that's what I call customer service. 

I've also placed a request for the same parts, but from their 1/48 UH-1D SAR Heeresflieger #04452 kit as they look as though they might fit the ESCI UH-1D, but I suspect that's a Revell of Germany kit, and it's been taken up by Italeri but is oop as Scalemates indicates as much...

I don't really need the parts as the one's I have are adequately painted in my opinion but it can never hurt to have spares, especially given my record so far with the kit...

" I sprayed some Fairy Power Spray.... on the cabin roof windows I painted and left it for an hour, and hey presto off came the paint, no marks or anything.  Excellent."

Good to know Raven...

Wonder what it means when I got a household job to do & I raid my modelling supplies for cleaners, acrylic floor shine, or medical supplies..... 

Hi ;

Heres a tip for that right out of CHRISTMAS ! .

    You know all about those craft kits of " suncatchers " that proliferate the stores at this time of years .The GREEN paint is very translucent and works well on transparent model pieces either sprayed from an airbrush (spray it wet ) or a fine makup fan brush .

I live in the UK, Essex, North Essex to be precise, 16 miles from Colchester and 11 miles from Chelmsford.

To my knowledge there aren't any half decent model shops I can get to (I don't drive).

Anyway, it's Fairy Power Spray and Tamiya Clear Green for the win!!

I sprayed some Fairy Power Spray (I bought some last year for an Airsoft pistol project and never used it) on the cabin roof windows I painted and left it for an hour, and hey presto off came the paint, no marks or anything.  Excellent.

I've now dipped the pieces in neat Tamiya Clear Green (basically I dipped the pieces in the pot), which might have been a bit of an error but I thought I'd give it a go - one window appears to have turned out reasonably well, the other window seems to have had a darker area pool on one side, unfortunately, but I'm reasonably happy with how they've turned out, considering I'm a noob at doing tinted windows.  Without a lot of practise I doubt I'll get it right any time soon, without an airbrush at least.

Also...

..it turns out that in 1997ish my mother bought some Johnsons Wax floor polish, guess what it's called?

Yep - Klear!

Bonus.  She's got a whole 500ml bottle of it and she's never used it, so that saves me £5ish.

I tried it on a spare piece of sprue and whilst it did make the piece more shiny I'm not 100% convinced I like how it looks but I'll see how it goes on the actual windows...

KEEP CALM

     and

CARRY ON

MODELLING!

Any consumables such as Tamiya Clears, MicroScale, glues, brushes, if looked after, will last years!

(unless knocked over, but let's not go there right now....)

I have brushes & paints older than my children!

You don't say where you live, but google model shops in your location, you will often find that the staff are very knowledgeable, full of err.... advice,  & prices are often the same as the web, minus postage

Or Tamiya Gloss Clear Green (EX25)

Humbrol clear Green(1325)

Cool thanks, that Swannys site seems very useful.

Thanks for the info on clear cements for windows.  I have noticed in the past (when I was a kid, some 20 years ago) that when I glued a cockpits windows they always looked a bit rubbish because I could see the glue.  Especially with superglue because you can see where it's crystallised between the surfaces.  Of the ones you've mentioned I will probably go with the Microscale product, I found it on ebay and looking for the others it seems they cost just about as much.

Still, it's another £5ish I'm spending on stuff that I really shouldn't be - when I started this project I planned on keeping the costs to rock bottom as I'm short on cash, each time I come to do something now I seem to need to buy something new. 

Edit: with regard to Decals, they go down best on gloss surfaces, some people gloss where the decal is to go, then apply decal, & then mat/semi/or gloss varnish the whole aircraft (excluding the canopies!)

Some people separate decal from sheet in a bowl in the traditional way & then dip in Future to help it snuggle down, read Swannys site for more info.

The Blue tint on the Wasp is excellent, BTW!  

Pledge Klear or Johnson Pledge Multi Surface Wax Cleaner 750ml Formerly known as Johnsons KLEAR

From £4.95 on a well known auction site, or a lot less than that from your favourite supermarket!

Google " Swannys Complete Future for all you need to know about it, inc. techniques like dipping & tinting.

Some people swear by it, some at it! your mileage may vary...

To Glue your canopy, try Microscale Kristal Clear, Deluxe Materials Glue And Glaze, Gatorglue,  PVA-like glues that don't mark transparencies.

Even LOW-ODOUR super glue, provided you have dipped the canopy in Future/Klear/Pledge!  

Not so good, I just looked up Italeri's kit #1247 and it's a 1/72 kit.  I think they overlooked in my email where I specifically stated 1/48.  Hmm.  Oh well, have to see how this goes...

Well some potential good news.

I read on a blog somewhere (helokit.com I think) that Italeri took over the production of ESCI kits from 2000 (most here probably already knew this).

So I dropped Italeri a line with a view to obtaining a spare windows sprue for the ESCI UH-1D that I have.

Anyhoo Italeri emailed me back this AM with an instructions sheet for kit #1247 asking me to identify the parts, turns out that kit (if it's still available) looks just like the ESCI kit rotorwash sent me.

So I might get some spare windows after all.  Still waiting for them to get back to me with a quote on the parts for the M60 door guns which I gave them the part numbers for the other day though...

I contacted Revell of Germany regarding spare windows for the Huey Hog, just in case I mess them up when I come to do them, and apparently they are no longer available.  I also contacted Revell of America regarding the same parts but in the US version (which is the USMC version without the red tail), so hopefully they'll have them, they had the decals lying around and were able to send me some.  I suspect it won't be the case though, easier to print some decals than run off 1 sprue...

Oh and the Tamiya clear green I ordered arrived today. Yay.

Klear/Future/Pledge/Pledge with Future shine....

All the same stuff

Aha!  I'll go with that then, a little over £5 is much more agreeable than nearly £30.

I'll have to brush it on though. Not sure how that would go on the whole model, think I'll leave it to just use on small parts like the windows.  I really should invest in an airbrush I guess, but again it comes down to cost vs usage...

Couple of quick questions regarding what stikpusher has said -

Overall gloss coat for decaling - I wasn't planning on putting anything over the top of my paint job on the UH-1D, which is Humbrol Matt OD (#155), or any other Hueys as they'll all be matt OD, I was simply going to put the decals straight on the top of it and then paint around the edges so you can't see the clear edge.  That's the way I always used to do it when I assembled Airfix kits as a kid.  Is that incorrect, to me it seems odd to put a gloss layer over what is supposed to be a matt paint job?

Attaching small clear parts - don't quite understand that, my usual thought process when I see clear parts is to fix them on with polystyrene cement (very carefully of course), would I in fact, for example, be better off securing such pieces as the cabin roof windows with Future, and if so how exactly does that work?

You can tell it's been years since I did anything but paint Games Workshop miniatures (and probably not as well as I'd like to think looking around at what others do), as I don't know diddly about painting this sort of model kit...

Klear is indeed the same stuff as Future from your neck of the woods.

 Ray  

Well After a couple more Hueys, and a Bell 47 I don't really plan on painting any further models of this sort, not for a very long while at least.

And I didn't clock the shipping price on Amazon - £14.97.  Taking the total cost to near £30 (that's nearly $45).

I just can't justify that sort of cost for a few windows.

Also looking around I'm not sure that same stuff is available elsewhere in the UK - there's only that seller on Amazon by the look of it.  Which would explain the shipping costs, as it's shipped from the US (the sellers address is NY).

Although having said that I've just come across this on Amazon - www.amazon.co.uk/.../ref=sr_1_1

Same stuff?  A post on the page linked to below seems to indicate Klear is the UK name for Future?

www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php

Raven Morpheus

Actually I just found it, it's Pledge furniture polish.  Think I'll give that a miss, not worth £12 for just a few windows.

www.amazon.co.uk/.../B000ARPH4C

Thank you Raven.

That bottle has many more uses than tinting a few windows... if you build lots of aircraft and use it on every one of them for canopies, attaching small clear parts, overall gloss coat for decaling, etc, it will last you MANY years...  

One wonders when it will become economical for manufacturers to just use a clear green plastic for the greenhouse windows on Hueys, Kiowas and Loaches.   For what it's worth, the Testors Transparent Emerald Green has proven to be the best option for me.  I have tried numerous other products, but none are as good IMHO.

  Ray

Actually I just found it, it's Pledge furniture polish.  Think I'll give that a miss, not worth £12 for just a few windows.

www.amazon.co.uk/.../B000ARPH4C

People keep mentioning Future.  Please could someone tell me exactly what that is (or give me a link to some) as I'm not finding it via google.

I'm assuming it's some kind of clear gloss varnish?

Nice hog and Kiowa stikpusher.

If you have to hand brush, I suggest painting only the inner surface in the clear green. You may want to dip the part in Future after the paint has had time to dry and cure.  I hand brushed this Huey's top windows inner surfaces 25 or so some odd years ago when I built it...

these ones on my Kiowa were airbrushed and then dipped

As I understand a mate of mine has done tinting with colored future and a flat soft brush, he accelerated the curing by using a heardrier to "boost" the future. In this way he got no pooling.

I think the trick with brushing future onto canopy or as a gloss decal coat on the model is to use a large flat and soft brush, I woul say atleast 1/2" (12mm) wide.

I have done it on a model and it works out well. I tint the inside of the canopy so that I can safely handle the outside without rubbing the color off. Seems very obvious I know LOL!

Try the brush idea, I think it will work well on your relatively flat windows. If you don;t like it just put it into more future to remove it.

Theuns

I think Tamiya carries clear green as well. Try that...

I've used Easter egg coloring (food dye) to tint Future as Theuns suggests and, though I've not tried it, I think you would be able to brush it on - don't know about getting uniform color though.  I have dipped clear parts and If they're not on the model, dipping in green dyed Future will work and give a uniform color. I have brushed plain Future many times without problems - it has nice self-leveling properties

@Theuns - unfortunately I don't have an airbrush, and I've never used one.  So it's either spray can (which is expensive just for doing a couple of small pieces) or brush.

Thanks for the tip though, that canopy on the Wasp looks great.

Not sure that will work, the kit I've painted the cabin roof windows on is a ESCI UH-1D.  I'll see if the same parts from the Revell UH-1B/C kit I've got fit, if they do then yes I'll drop Revell a line as they were kind enough to supply the old Monogram UH-1C decals for free.

Hi. here is what I did on the top section of my 1/48 Wasp's cabin glazing to give it the blue tint.

I simply mixed a little blue (but green will do the same effect) food coloring into some Future (Pledge) ans airbrushed a few light coats to the inside of the canopy. Light coats helps to prevent pooling.

Theuns

Edit: You might be able to contact Revell to get a replacement clear sprue.

 Hi & welcome to another Brit!

Be cautious with  Fairy Power Spray, Mr Muscle, Brake Fluid, etc, as these will badly mark transparent parts.

It will Shift Acrylic & most enamels though. 

You don't say if you were using Acrylic or Enamel?

If Acrylic, then get some Windolene (Windex in the US), IF you can find it!

Otherwise try some Tesco's own Brand Value cleaner, Key ingredient is the Ammonia surfectant, whatever that is. 

All is not lost if you used Enamels, but cleanup of the transparencies will be harder.

To repaint, Tamiya Clear Green, preferably sprayed, will do a nice job, If you want it darker, several thin coats. 

The Tamiya Clears can be further thinned with Future, or you can add food colouring to future (or Tamiya Clear),  

To get 5%, drip 19 drops of Future/Tamiya into an old film canister, then add one drop of food colouring to taste 

 good luck