1:48 Tamiya Raiden canopy question: solved

No, no, you dont put a piece of tape over the canopy.  I mean to boarder it will small stripes of tape.  The light just illuminates the frame. 

SubarooMike

This is the easiest way I know of and use: 

Do you have a smart phone?   If so, turn on the flashlight app/function.  Lay your phone face down on your work surface.  Put a few pieces of masking tape over the LED light to dull it down a little -- enough so it doesnt blind you.  Once youve done that, cut some fine line tape in a few strips a few mm wide.    Place the canopy over the light. Now it should be easy for you to see the lines in the canopy. Use the small strips of fine line tape to tape out the boarder of the canopy frame.  Once finished just used pieces of tape or making fluid to fill the centers.   It's truly that easy! 

 

Yep I tried this but the lines were too faint to see through the tape

Looks nice.  I use Don's method for troublesome canopies.  Tamiya tape cut in narrow strips, then fill in the middles.  Horizontal first, then vertical.  The real pain in the neck is on canopies like the T-6 (or BT-13) where there are little gussets in the corners of all the frames.

Well I did a bit off both. I resized a template but that wasn't exact so I did strips as well.  I prime, airbrush, dullcoat and finally a dunk in future.  My result isn't perfect but I'm much happier with this result.  Thanks for all the tips!

Hi !

   What I do when I wind up with that problem is this . I take Scotch Magic Mending Tape and tape off the clear areas .Then I very carefully take paint of the right shade ( the interior color ) then leaving the tape in place do the exterior as well ,peel off the tape and clearcoat the whole canopy .  T.B.

On really hard to mask canopies, that do not leave distinctive ridges, I do the frames a line or a few lines at a time- say all the verticals at one time, all the horizontals next, or even break it down a frame piece at a time.  Takes a lot of time on a big greenhouse like an SBD or the BT-13 that i am working on now.  But, I can see the lines more easily.

I use the 6 mm Tamiya tape and cut it in half lengthwise for the smaller scale models.  I then brush paint the lines.  Lines that narrow don't need airbrush, so rest of canopy beyond line I am painting doesn't need masking.

This is the easiest way I know of and use: 

Do you have a smart phone?   If so, turn on the flashlight app/function.  Lay your phone face down on your work surface.  Put a few pieces of masking tape over the LED light to dull it down a little -- enough so it doesnt blind you.  Once youve done that, cut some fine line tape in a few strips a few mm wide.    Place the canopy over the light. Now it should be easy for you to see the lines in the canopy. Use the small strips of fine line tape to tape out the boarder of the canopy frame.  Once finished just used pieces of tape or making fluid to fill the centers.   It's truly that easy! 

It sounds as if you're trying to cover the entire canopy with tape and then trimming out the frames.

This canopy doesn't have a great many individual panes. I think you'd get better results by cutting slivers of masking tape to mask the frames and then filling in with tape.

Has anyone ever tried to color the canopy frames with magic marker so they would show through the tape, mark the frames and then remove the magic marker with isopropyl alcohol?  I tried hand painting tonight and just wasn't happy with the result

Thanks

If only they would take credit cards

KnightTemplar5150

cutting edge modelworks makes a set of self adhesive masks for this kit. it should make the task a breeze for you.

Cutting Edge are long gone. You may have better luck with E-Z Masks http://www.ezmasks.com/aircraft.html #81

cutting edge modelworks makes a set of self adhesive masks for this kit. it should make the task a breeze for you.

I wonder if I could place scotch tape down mark that and then use that as a template for the tamiya tape. I don't know how that adhesive would affect the canopy though. I guess I could try it on a scrap canopy

You could try painting clear tape, cutting it into strips, then putting the strips on the canopy.

I've never tried this technique, but have heard of it.

you could try to find a vacuform canopy from squadron.