masking the canopy

very carefully...

Here's something I was reading just today:  Swanny's Guide to Masking Canopies

I just used the "put tape down and trim with brand new sharp blade" technique.  It worked fairly well, some mistakes I hope go away with practice. 

For me the key is patience.  And more patience, and even more patience.

Paul

I generally do a pencil & paper relief of the canopy, place it over some Tamiya tape & carefully cut around the markings with a fresh blade. I prefer this over using "bits" as there are no misaligned edges or "meets" anywhere, I also prefer it to cutting directly onto the canopy because if I make a mistake I won't damage the canopy.

This method obviously wont work with canopies that have very feint lines & may be quite tiresome for those with lots of frame & individual windows................

I also just do it manually, no masks, and carefully.  Yeah, it is a lot of work and tedius, but it does work.  Doesn't take any more patience than, say, rigging a ship :-)

I get some of the narrowest tape I can, like the Pactra 1/16 inch stuff, and lots of Tamiya in various sizes. I always start a canopy masking job with a fresh blade.  I seal the tape with gloss clear before I apply any color.

On really complex canopies like bombers and stuff I may do it in several steps, say horizontal lines in one painting and then vertical in a second.

I use toothpicks to help nestle tape down in corners and along edges.

I just use liquid masks. Time consuming and tedious waiting for liquid to dry before moving on to the next panel, but I don't need to be as careful as the one with a knife. If I don't like the way it looks before painting I just strip it off and start over.

AT6

I just use liquid masks. Time consuming and tedious waiting for liquid to dry before moving on to the next panel, but I don't need to be as careful as the one with a knife. If I don't like the way it looks before painting I just strip it off and start over.

When I'm masking off bolt-heads on my armored vehicles I use plain, ole Elmer's glue.

Scorpiomikey

very carefully...

oh really?

I preface this by saying I got the idea from a Finescale issue many months ago but...  after trying may methods to get a good canopy mask, I have finally found the perfect solution- Bare Metal Foil!!  Here is what I do:

1.  cover the canopy in bare metal foil- use a couple strips rather than one piece in order to deal with the curves.  Burnish the foil down with a Q-Tip so it fits and shows the panel line details.

2.  Use a fresh #11 exacto blade and trace the panel lines so only the clear pieces are covered.

3.  Airbrush whatever color you are using- use Enamel paint...  and let it cure for 48 hours

4.  Remove the foil and use a Q-Tip with alcohol to clean any residue.  If the enamel was allowed to cure the alcohol will not disturb it.

5.  Dip the whole canopy in future and let dry

6 using a 00 brush go over the painted portions with whatever flat coat you prefer.  (I like Model Master Acryl Flat)

Good Luck!

When I don't use pre-cut masks (I go about 50/50...it's a price vs. laziness thing for me), I tend to use a hybrid method depending on the shape of the clear parts to be masked.

For squares and rectangles, I'll go with the "little strips of tape" method each time. Just take any width of Tamiya tape, put it on some glass, grab a straight edge, and slice it into thin strips. Then slice the strips perpendicular so you have a bunch of small pieces to work with. Mask the edges first, then work your way in. Easy, but time consuming.

For sharp angles and curved glass (like the front windscreens), I use baremetal foil. Burnish it down, cut it gently with a scalpel blade, peel off from the canopy frame. 

X2 with the liquid mask.  I've used Micro Mask in the past with excellent results.  Will be trying Hobbico mastermask in my new build (couldn't find MM at the local HS).

I usually paint it on with a brush and if need be, use a #10 blade to trim up any flashover.  It's worked well for me for many years.

Reid

I use a variation of a couple of the techniques mentioned here.

I use plain, ordinary cheap painters masking tape from Walmart--usually the yellow-tannish kind, since it seems more flexible than the blue kind.  I cut this into very thin strips, usually much longer than needed so you've got something to hold onto, on each end.

I mask around the inside edges of the "glass," using a sharp xacto blade to trim on the model.  Then I use MicroMask to fill in the centers.  The result looks like this.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

As you (hopefully) can see, when the strips are cut narrow enough, they go around curves pretty well.

And after painting and removal, the final result looks like this.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0] 

This method is just as tedious and time-consuming as others have mentioned.  One of the joys of kitbuilding.

Good luck.  And practice, practice.

Hey Reid,

                Try the Micromark Madskit easy. A large bottles cost me $9.25 at Hobbytown here locally. The bottle is large enough to last through many models. I have yet to try it  as I have used other brands with modifications to their formulations and still not totally happy with them. I miss the good old days when Micro mask was commonly available.

I taped off my PBY glass with blue painters tape yea it took me a few sittings to do it all, and I figured it wouldn't look very good because I was cutting on the glass with a new blade, but actually my screw ups don't show much. Maybe thats because I painted it Black Metallic for the "Hunting after Dark" Group Build.

I bang my head against the wall as a proactive measure... then I will either use the little strips, tape and cut, or parafilm and cut methods.

Go to your nearest auto parts store and buy some pin striping tape. The stuff adheres well is flexible enough to mask complex shapes. i sometimes get a bit of residue when I pull the tape up but alcohol on a cotton swab cleans that up in a couple of seconds.

I put small pieces of tamia tape on the straight edges. but where I cant do that  I use a sharp pencil to outline the edge of the frame which gives you an easy line to follow.  A  plus of doing this is that it burnishes down the edges of the tape, and gives a good paint seal.