Clear 1/700 air wings - Worth it?

Well, my sanity gave out after painting and decaling 37 aircraft for the Enterprise's deck (plus the ones I was less careful with for the minimal hanger detailing I did). We're talking 17 F/A-18Cs, 4 E2-Cs, 4 EA-6Bs, 5 S3-Bs, and 7 SH/HH-60s ... and that is going to have to be enough!

Nice to see I'm not the only one who has this problem.

 

Still don't know what to do. I can't bear the brushpainting either, the paint is on too thick for the detail or to thin to cover properly at all. And as for how many, I am building the whole USN CVs from Forrestal to Reagan, some LHAs and a LHD in 1/700/720. About half way there. All to be populated with aircraft yet!

1/700!!! OMG I was thinking 1/350!!! Never mind the pics . I know what you're talking about now. I was just thinking maybe one could just grind the canopy off and replace it after painting with a bit of clear plastic. But in 1/700 you'd have to do it under a binocular microscope fer cryin out loud.

reklein - these 1/700 aircraft are solid, but the clear styrene is very, very brittle - flex it just a tiny bit and snap!, there goes a wing tip (ask me how I know). Besides, I know of no saw with a thin enough blade to be able to slice off the canopies even if it was possible. I need to post a picture of how tiny these things are ... I could fit three F/A18s on a quarter!

I have'nt built any of those little planes. Are they solid? If so could the canopy just be cut of and after painting a new clear conopy glued in place with say R/C56? Don't know just thinking on the keyboard.

David Harris - I think what ends up defeating most masking efforts is that the area in question is just so fricking small. Like, less than 1/8 inch long and very narrow and rounded.

I tried Bare Metal Foil; while it adhered OK, trying to burnish it down tightly on that canopy dome and then getting a clean cut edge with a new X-acto blade defeated me despite numerous attempts. Various kinds of tape, same thing - there just isn't enough plastic there for it to hold tightly to. I thought about liquid masks, but ... trying to get a crisp edge on a compound curve surface is beyond my meager abilities. So I did it the hard way - a No. 2 brush, a little bit at a time, and LOTS of patience. Which was OK if I was only doing 1 or two of these little guys, but more than 40 ...

And scottrc, I experimented and settled on several shades of dark gray to paint the "floors" of my jets - anything else, especially black, looked very, very weird from several angles! But I am playing with a thin band of gold paint on the canopy sides of my EA6-Bs, which I think will give a bit of that "gold dome" look that Prowlers have in just the right light.

I paint the bottom with some green zinc and put a little dab of liquid mask over the canopy then prime them.  However, I too feel there is a lot to do with very litle gain.  Plus, its a real bugger when a clear part falls off the tree and onto a white floor.

Scott 

Maybe a liquid masking agent like Humbrol Maskol or something similar,  would be a better way to go about covering the canopy area than trying to tape it?

I have just begun working on the Trumpeter 1/700 CV-14 USS Ticonderoga and I was looking at the clear a/c thinking what a pain in the rear it is going to be to try to mask, prime and paint those little birds to keep the canopy area clear. I am seriously considering just priming the whole thing and painting the canopy silver or something rather than trying to mask it off, especially if I go and buy some addition a/c to fill out the deck more.

Steve