Masking canopies?

Absolutly!  I have two Spitfires at 90% complete that have sat in their box for the last three years awaiting canopy masking and more recently, a bf109 that has been idle for only a month awaiting masking.....still searching for the best method to mask for acrylic paints..

Spiralcity. 

I agree that canopy can be tedious in any scale. Sometimes you can buy precut makes and ...wola done !. But in most cases you must mask our own.tedious in deed .there's many ways of canopy masking .like many of us here, we have our favorite ways of doing this. I myself like to cut my tamiya tape  in very thin slices  and frame in along the lines of canopy frame then fill (or)brush in the middle with micromask liquid over lapping the tap just enough to seal it ( see 5-high in mustang GB.to see how I did this ) it's less tedious then cutting the frame out ..there maybe others that have better methods. .but that's how I do it ..with practice you'll find your favorite way to mask canopies too ..hope this helps 

5-high 

5-high

Spiralcity. 

I agree that canopy can be tedious in any scale. Sometimes you can buy precut makes and ...wola done !. But in most cases you must mask our own.tedious in deed .there's many ways of canopy masking .like many of us here, we have our favorite ways of doing this. I myself like to cut my tamiya tape  in very thin slices  and frame in along the lines of canopy frame then fill (or)brush in the middle with micromask liquid over lapping the tap just enough to seal it ( see 5-high in mustang GB.to see how I did this ) it's less tedious then cutting the frame out ..there maybe others that have better methods. .but that's how I do it ..with practice you'll find your favorite way to mask canopies too ..hope this helps 

5-high 

 

Thanks 5-high, I actually tried the liguid mask and didnt care for that technique, I just cut thin strips of tape and start filling in the areas that need covered. I find this to work best for me. It takes time, but it works well. I am fortunate to have a wife that works for one of the largest medical supply companies in the USA, so I get to try all kinds of great water proof medical tape. Im using a medical tape I have never used before on this project, I find it a bit thick, but it leaves behind zero residue.

I despise masking!   

When available I always spend the extra $10 and get me some pre-cut masks.  It a small price to pay to keep my sanity and continue to enjoy the hobby.

It's the make or break of a model I know but if you can't get over that barrier and enjoy it you'll stumble every time. If I can get a mask set I will, especially for a complex multi frame bomber or transport but Tamiya tape burnished down with a cocktail stick then followed round the framing with a brand new blade will do the trick. There's an enormous amount of satisfaction peeling those self cut masks off at the end of a build!

There's a few ways you can go about this:

1) Do you enjoy painting with a brush?  If you do, you can hand paint it.  I've done that several times.  It's fun for me at least.  The hard part is if you're going to weather the fueselage you need to lightly weather the canopy frame as well (Part you painted only).

2) You can buy pre-cut (Masks).  My choice is Eduard.  There are many other brands out there, another example is Montex.  You just need to keep trying other brands like I did until you feel good about a specific brand.  They can sell from $5.00 to $20.00.  

I use eBay as a purchasing choice, you can go to your LHS or any on-line source.  The options are infinite.

Here's one example, I just purchased a Kitty Hawk 1:32 Airacobra from a seller on eBay, I've been utilizing this seller for six months.  This seller also had PE and masks for this particular kit.  It was a one stop shopping process for me.  The choices are endless.  

3) Finally, you can do what you're doing.  At first, anything is difficult.  Like your first bike.  But once you learn a specific technique you'll master it after several tries and you'll look back and laugh like I did.  

Check out YouTube, there are several techniques in canopy masks.  YouTube, trial and error, and especially this forum is where I learned everything needed to build a model kit.  

4) Most importantly and definitive!!!!  You must have FUN! 

Toshi

For what it's worth, here's my method.

#1 - Dip the canopy in Future and let cure overnight. (or longer)

#2 - Cut Blue Painters tape into 1/16" strips.

#3 - Mask off the Horizontal frames and burnish.

#4 - Paint the strips with future overlapping the tape.

#5 - First coat is the interior color.

#6 - Second coat is the exterior color. 

#7 - Let cure overnight and remove tape.

#8  Repeat with the vertical braces.

I should mention that I do the painting on the canopies with a small brush and acrylic paints.  This is all done while working on other parts of the plane.  

Hope that this helps.

Jim  

I hate masking canopies. Except for the pre-cut variety, there is abolutely no easy, fast, or enjoyable aspect about this. NONE! I'd rather fill and sand the devil his selfs bad seams from hell to breakfast than to mask canopies.

fox

For what it's worth, here's my method.

#1 - Dip the canopy in Future and let cure overnight. (or longer)

#2 - Cut Blue Painters tape into 1/16" strips.

#3 - Mask off the Horizontal frames and burnish.

#4 - Paint the strips with future overlapping the tape.

#5 - First coat is the interior color.

#6 - Second coat is the exterior color. 

#7 - Let cure overnight and remove tape.

#8  Repeat with the vertical braces.

I should mention that I do the painting on the canopies with a small brush and acrylic paints.  This is all done while working on other parts of the plane.  

Hope that this helps.

Jim  

 

Interesting -- so the future seals the tape edges, I assume, but still allows for a clean peel when removing the tape? 

spiralcity

Does anyone find this process as tedious as I? This to me is the least favorite of the modeling process. I have been trying to mask my canopy for the last two hours. I am always re-adjusting, just never satisfied. I'm going to have to bite the bullet, and just let the process flow until finished, otherwise I will be masking this thing all weekend.

 

 

Like many things, when we look at a complex canopy with lot's of frames it sems intimidating, but once started it moves along quickly and in an hour or two it's a done deal. I spent perhaps three hours on the 1:48th Accurate Miniatures Avenger transparencies, tedious yes, but very satisfying when completed.

Patrick

Suomi39 - Yes, the future seals the edges of the tape.  When I remove the tape, I always pull the tape up and away from the canopy slowly for a clean peel.

Hope this helps you.  Good luck.

Jim   

Try "EZ Masks".They are out of Canada.They work well.They slide into place w/soapy water.Paint then peel off.Works great,and very cheap.

After years of building aircraft, before masks were available I can offer this.   If Eduard has the mask set then buy it...... If not then use Tamiya tape to cut and mask yourself, and realize it is tedious but you get better at it every time you do it. 

I just linear no-step line decaled the top of my 1/72nd A-400 and it took a week of grueling patience.  I did a little every day. Every modeling subject area has its own demons, and aircraft I believe has more than the others.

Sometimes the grind takes the fun out of it, but the end result will be worth it. Particularly with the cost of models and materials in 2016.

Patrick,

I'm doing the masks on the same Avenger kit now.

Only 3 hours ?  Geez, it took me 3 hours just to mask the bubble turent with the tape and cut method, but I am still pressing on.  I want to display the canopies open so I'll hafta cut the 1 piece affair supplied with the kit apart before i mask those I guess.

For years, I hand-painted my canopies using a very fine brush and a lot of patience. But, since I'm older now and my Mk. I Mod. 0 eyeball doesn't work so well anymore, I have finally given in to masking my canopies. At first, I used the blue masking tape, as fox/Jim said, on the theory that it won't leave behind any residue (if you leave it on the canopy for too long), but I found the tape was too thick, and left a prominent ridge after you peeled it off (even after only one coat).

So I finally tried good ole Scotch-brand transparent tape, and it worked really well! Don't use the clear stuff, it's too hard to tell the difference between the tape and the canopy; use the "frosted", or matte, tape so you can tell the difference between it and the canopy. Also, it's easier to get off than the "invisible" (clear) kind. Just cover the entire canopy (or whatever) in "Scotch" tape, then veeeeeery carefully trim along the canopy lines with a sharp knife (the sharper, the better), then peel off the parts you don't need.

I used to worry about the sharp knife gouging a line in the clear part, but if you use just enough pressure to cut the tape, you won't notice it. I also "dip" my clear parts in Future (or whatever it's called now) for an added bit of protection, and that seems to help.

I've found for handpainting, acrylic markers seem to work better that a brush for me.  You get a more even coverage the first time out with less chance of dripping. For me mutlipe thin coats with a brush always seemed to leave it blotchy or with an uneven surface (too much paint in certain places). I buy the empty ones and use MM acrylics in them.  Otherwise I mask with tamiya tape, prime (I'm not picky about internal frame colors) and spray with the acrylics.  Once that dries I hit it with dullcoat let dry for a short time and peel off the masks.  I've found if I leave the dullcoat on overnight it can lead to chipping of the acrylics.  When its somewhat cured it tends to "tear" off leaving a sharp edge.  If I managed to ding up the canopy previously then I dip the whole thing in future and that usually fixes the problems.  I have used pre-cut masks and those are terrific