Masking windows before doing top coat

goldhammer

Since you have already painted the rest of it, mask the clear parts including the inside before painting the two colors on the frames.  Remove the inside masking and attach to the aircraft, then spray your dullcoat and unmask the rest

 

Definitely mask the whole inside of canopy. Good call that I forgot to mention.

I  sometimes do dull coat canopies and greenhouses on birds I heavily weather.  World War 2 planes were especially vulnerabl to UV fogging of plexiglas.  Modern planes are much more UV resistance, but you still see a few ramp queens tied down on the grass that look a bit grubby.  Navy planes that spend a lot of time on hanger deck are a lot cleaner.

It bothers me sometimes to see a well weathered warbird with a pristine canopy or greenhouse.  It may happen in real life but it is unusual.

 

Since you have already painted the rest of it, mask the clear parts including the inside before painting the two colors on the frames.  Remove the inside masking and attach to the aircraft, then spray your dullcoat and unmask the rest

Most of my modeling as a kid didn't involve painting, much less masking! I was in to much of a hurry to play with it. 50+ years later, my patience is a little better, so I'm now learning things that I WISH I had known earlier. BlackSheep, you just created one of those "Doh!" moments! Mask BEFORE installation!! Such a simple concept, but not one I'd thought of as an old-newbie! I realize now that I've done a lot of things bass-ackwards on this build that I'll be doing differently next time. I'm just trying to finish this one w/o doing something un-repairable... :)

Glue the masked canopy to the fuselage. Spray the first coat the same color as interior - zinc chromate. Then spray the color of your kit on top of it. Final coat should be your clearcoat.

Remove mask after all painting sessions is done.

Makes sense. Thanks! The aluminum has already been sprayed. I then installed clear parts and after that, added decals. Ready to either leave it alone, or go through all the masking effort to spray the clear...

You are masking for the aluminum color right? Always leave the canopy masks on til the very end of the build. That includes the final clear coats. 

Yes. Otherwise the dull coat will make the clear parts look fogged or frosted up.