Painting Canopies

Hi John,

Been there, done that!!! I use mainly acrylics. For masking I use Bare Metal Foil, Tamiya or Frog tape, But, I think the real secret is in the number of mist coats with the AB - i.e. my first coat is VERY light and so is the second. It might take 5 mist coats to get what I want. When I try to cover with only a coat or two, I usually get seeping so patience is the only solution I've found. It does take time for me anyway.

If you use tape, only use Tamiya tape. Then burnish down the edges with a toothpick. Use light coats with the airbrush. Don't spray a heavy coat like you normally would for general painting. And I would ditch the Future dipping. Most WW 2 aircraft canopies didn't look super shiny and brand new except on the assembly line.

I use green painter's tape regularly with no problem. Like others have said, the key is to burnish it down well at the edges, and to mist on light coats. I use Acryls too and I've always found they dry fast enough to not cause bleed-through. Also, make sure you give the paint plenty of time to cure. I've had it come back up with the tape if I get in a hurry. Several light coats dry faster and can speed up the overall project time as well, on canopies.

I also recommend avoiding the Future dip.  You can use the Novus polishing kit to make your canopies crystal clear.  

The nice thing with Novus is that you get a crystal clear canopy without the overly glossy appearance that Future dipped canopies have.  Plus, in spite of what you may have heard, Futured canopies are not scratch resistant and they are susceptible to water damage if your masking tape were to get wet from wet sanding or cleaning the model.

As mentioned above, use Tamiya tape or Bare Metal Foil.  I learned a trick quite some time ago for not letting paint bleed under a mask.  Dip in Future, mask away using your choice in masking agent.  Spray a few times VERY LIGHTLY with gloss coat.  You're sealing the edge of the paint to the canopy and Future, and if it bleeds, it bleeds gloss coat which you're not going to see.  Now paint your colours.  Finally, run a NEW exacto blade around your masking edge and lift it away (a toothpick works nicely to start the edge lifting), just don't scrape your paint.

The same trick can be used for any masking, paint your base colour, mask, a VERY LIGHT spray of base colour, then your new colour.

Hope it helps.

I have never had any real problems from bleeding tamiya tape masking mixed with Future dips. Personally, I am not a big fan of MM Acryl paints, unless I have no other choices- thier airbrushing properties are mediocre at best in my experience. A couple techincal notes. Oftentimes, the inner surface of canopy framing is painted in flat black or some other low glare/reflective color. A few light misted on coats of this will help with yur top coats adhesion. As far as WWII canopies go, at least on tactical aircraft, the canopies and windscreens were cleaned and polished fairly regularly whenever possible. That was a matter of life or death for the pilot- is that a speck of dirt or an enemy fighter? Whether you choose to polish the plastic itself or use a Future dip is up to you.

Heh, its not that I'm anti-canopy dipping, I just chuckle at all the posts I've seen (on other forums too) like, "how to dip canopies in future", then later on, "how to remove future from canopy and start over"...So I agree with Stik, to dip or not to dip is up to you.

I did some testing and here is what I found.  I laid down some future of a piece of plastic that is used in all the stores.  It is pliable but stiff and since I will be painting over the future, I don't think it mattered.  I then made to "lines" bordered one by Tamiya tape and one by Scotch Blue.  I then sprayed Vallejo acrylic polyurethane primer on one section, hand painted some Vallejo light grey over another section, and lastly hand painted some Vallejo dark grey over another.

Took two coats to cover with the light grey as it wanted to "pool" towards the tape.  I had things pretty flat I think.  The dark grey was pretty good after one coat.  I then sprayed some RLM 66 over the primer.  24 hours to cure and then I lifted up the tape without using a blade to score it.  Both lines were almost perfect, but the Tamiya tape was slightly better if you get real close or use a small magnifier.

I then took an old 1/72 FW-190 canopy and repeated it with the primer and the RLM 66 after masking the canopy but NO future was used.  Good lines, but a little ragged on some of the smaller lines but not really noticeable unless you are a perfectionist.  the primer was brushed on and it ran away from the plastic.  Then back over it more with some dabbing of the brush and it all held.  24 hours later the primer held and leveled really well.

So I guess it will work, it just takes some patience with either a brush or an airbrush and any combination.

John