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Painting canopies.


DrumBum

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Always struggle to paint canopies well.

 

I find paint does not stick well to clear parts and when removing the mask the paint peels away much more readily than when on plastic.

 

What does folks do to prevent this?

 

I dont dip clear parts in future like some people do but would this help?

 

hanks in advance.

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What paint? Applied how? Perhaps the coat is too thick?

 

In any event, lately I've been using a combination of tape and MSI Micro Mask. Maketar's Canopy Survival Kit offers some great bits of tape. I outline the edge with tape and fill in with liquid mask. Also, make sure the plastic is well cleaned; I always clean with 91% IPA before applying tape and painting. 

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Though I haven't done this ( I also haven't finished anything in a few decades ) I have heard of running a new, sharp blade ( Xacto or whatever you've got ) around the edge of the tape, so it doesn't lift the frame paint when removed.

 

 

 

 

Chris

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Always airbrushed on using mostly Tamiya acrylics. I usually clean the canopy with a cloth before spraying but maybe I will do a thorough wash before. Worried about scratches.

 

I usually have great results with tamiya masking tape when airbrushing regular plastic but the clear parts......scare me.

 

 

 

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I made an awful job of painting canopies. My last build I took the time to look here for recommendations.

 

I dipped in Klear equivalent. When masking using tamiya tape, I ran the blade along the frame edges to trim. This was reasonably successful. 

 

With thin layers of airbrushed tamiya acrylic I also tried running the blade along the edge to lift the tape.

 

Not as good as most of these folks on here. But miles better. My only issue was I left it so long to do, the tape fogged the canopy so I had to careful clean up with IPA I think and redo the clear bits.

 

So, dont expect perfect but try for small improvements in every step and good luck.

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                      Hang on  Fella's ,

 

                                                       wot  "Drumbum "..... was askin was ....wot do they use to do Canopy Frames

                              ....... that looks neat, to scale and........and does'nt rub orff ! ( that's me )

 

                                                                                                              mumbatatshunzz !

 

                                                                                                                                     Geoff

                                                                                                                                   F.T.G. 3156

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I like the idea of running a blade along the tape before removing. I will try that next time.

 

I started getting the windscreen ready and found it has a lot of radial marks on the inside that I would like to remove. Picture above in previous post.

 

Would dipping in klear help or would it be better to polish out.

 

Very annoying.

 

Cheers

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  • 1 year later...

I use a crude but fairly easy and effective method for painting canopies without a mask - just paint the frame roughly, then use a cotton bud dipped in enamel thinner to clean off any paint (usually lots) that has strayed off the frame.

A toothpick can be used to clean out any tight corners which can't be reached with the cotton bud.

The paint will not adhere well at first, so your first coat will effectively serve as your primer. It will take at least three coats to do it property, cleaning stray paint off the canopy each time.

 

There will be brush marks, but these will disappear underneath a coat of gloss varnish.

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On 8/4/2020 at 8:09 AM, Sharknose said:

Oh and never use cellulose thinners to clean canopy. I totally melted it for a tiger meet bronze typhoon and took months to build and paint.

 

Hi, Sharknose. As you are now only too aware, Cellulose Thinners are very corrosive. I've been told that you shouldn't use them to "flush out" / clean a lot of airbrushes, as the thinners will dissolve the seals in some devices. We all make mistakes, unfortunately. 

 

Chris. 

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