How Do You Mask Canopies?

[nheather]

When I was a kid in the 1970s I built 1:72 aircraft, I would use my pocket money to buy a kit from the village toy shop on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and I’d build and paint it over the weekend.

 

Then I would brush paint everything and when it came to canopies I’d hand-paint them off the plane and then stick them on with white PVA glue.

 

Work and family life pushed my childhood hobby to the side and about 30 years later I returned but focussing on 1:35 armour.

 

Recently, I returned to 1:72 aircraft and I decided to focus on WWII (and slightly pre-war) British aircraft and have started a new stash.  One aspect that that has me a little perplexed is how to deal with canopies.

 

I use an airbrush these days and I’m aware that it is best practice to fit the transparencies to the model before painting - which means some sort of masking.

 

My question is, how do go about it …. methods I am aware of are

 

• attach transparencies, totally mask them off, spray the aircraft, then hand finish the framing
• buy masking sets
• create your own masking with pieces of tape
• create masking with a combination of tape and masking liquid

 

I’m immediately drawn to ready made masking sets but often put off by the price which can sometimes be as much as the kit.

 

On the other hand, making your own masks seems viable for single canopies (fighters) but becomes more daunting for bombers with their glass houses and turrets.

 

Interesting to hear your approaches, especially whether it is a one size fits all or whether you use different approaches for different types.

[Luka]

Hi,
There's another method that I have seen, and that is re-using the tin-foil wrappers from chocolates. There's a youtube vid here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrhY6Oixlmc
 

You'd have to be pretty confident with a sharp blade though, as you have to cut the foil while it's on the canopy. The foil is pretty thin though and should cut easily. Plus, it's also much thinner than paper tape so the paint layer won't "heap up" at the edge.
Hth,
Luka

[Work In Progress]

If the frame lines are well defined by being raised or deeply engraved, then a good way of doing maskless canopy frames is as follows:

1. dip the canopy in Klear or one of the modern substitutes, allow to dry and attach as normal.

2. mask off canopy and paint aeroplane as normal.

3. brush paint the canopy using the correct colour of any water-based acrylic (Revell / Airfix / Games Workshop. Xtracrylics etc). Do the interior colour first, then the exterior color. Do not worry about accuracy, just paint on the colours smoothly and don;t worry about the excess.

4. let it go touch dry but before it cures fully...

5. use a wet cocktail stick or a suitable spike-shaped piece of wooden lolly-stick, or similar, to gently scrape off the excess paint using the frame lines on the canopy

 

This may sound hard but it can be a lot quicker and in some ways easier than masking a very complex shape, if you are having to make your own masks.

[nheather]

1 hour ago, Luka said:

Hi,
There's another method that I have seen, and that is re-using the tin-foil wrappers from chocolates. There's a youtube vid here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrhY6Oixlmc
 

You'd have to be pretty confident with a sharp blade though, as you have to cut the foil while it's on the canopy. The foil is pretty thin though and should cut easily. Plus, it's also much thinner than paper tape so the paint layer won't "heap up" at the edge.
Hth,
Luka

 

Thanks for reminding me, I had seen that one before but had forgotten it - mind you, with the likes of Quality Street switching to paper wrappers mind get harder to find supplies of chocolate foil.

[Tail-Dragon]

I almost always attach the transparencies before painting, and fill any unwanted seams. 

I cut thin strips of masking tape with a ruler (never the full length of the frame), and outline the frame with strips (often overlapping the shorter lengths to get the corners right). If there are curved frames, I'll cut curved strips, instead. Curved corners are done with small tape disc's first. Then fill the gaps with tape scrapes.  Never try to cut a single piece that covers the whole window piece, almost never works.

Edited February 15 by Tail-Dragon

[Mycapt65]

1 hour ago, Tail-Dragon said:

I almost always attach the transparencies before painting, and fill any unwanted seams. 

I cut thin strips of masking tape with a ruler (never the full length of the frame), and outline the frame with strips (often overlapping the shorter lengths to get the corners right). If there are curved frames, I'll cut curved strips, instead. Curved corners are done with small tape disc's first. Then fill the gaps with tape scrapes.  Never try to cut a single piece that covers the whole window piece, almost never works.

THIS^^^

[MilneBay]

I use Tamiya masking tape for kits where masks are not provided. Wherever possible I align the straight edge of the tape with the longest straight edge on the section of canopy I'm doing then I fill in the remainder with suitable small pieces again matching to straight edges where possible. If I have to cut to the shape of a frame I use a new blade and cut along the line required trying to apply only enough force to cut the tape and not scratch the clear plastic. Then I use scrap tape off cuts to to fill in the areas towards the centre of the panel if necessary.

 

On surfaces with compound curves again I will use the straight edge of the tape to match straight frame lines, but when this is not possible (Spitfire canopies and bubble hoods in general) I lay the tape diagonally as this handles the compound curves better.

 

Then I carefully paint the interior colour first and am careful because acrylics have a continuing problem of being prone to leaking under the tape - enamels and lacquers don't. This also acts to seal the tape frame line so that the final colour doesn't leak under the tape.

 

It's a process that require a lot of care as removing paint of any type from a clear panel is a nuisance. Overall however I generally find it fairly relaxing.  

[sprue]

A technique I use on acetate canopies is to use clear decal painted in which ever colour necessary then cut into strips and applied just like a decal. Some canopies are just too fragile to use the tape and cut method. Start by dipping them in clear or equivalent and allow to dry.

[ckw]

I use very thin strips of Tamiya tape to mask the outline of the glazing panel, then fill the gap with  Mr Masking Sol R (note this is water based. Some masking fluids contain ammonia, which reacts with Future if you use it for your canopies).

 

Thin strips of Tamiya can be made to work round curves, but for round windows or rounded corners I use a punch to make Tamiya tape discs.

 

I have tried masks but found some (usually vinyl ones) can leave a residue on my Future coated glazing. Paper masks work fine for me, but to be honest I don't find them much of a time saver over using my own method. If they're supplied in the kit, I'll use them but I wouldn't pay extra.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[Greg B]

Moved to the correct area. Please stop wasting mod time and consider where you post.

[nheather]

Noticed that some of my AZ Model kits have templates printed on the instructions.  So they don’t include ready made masks but provide the means to cut your own.  Think this is a nice touch, wish more companies did this.

 

Obviously companies like Eduard would not want to do this as they want to sell their masks, but companies like Airfix and Revell who are not in the mask business could provide templates on their instructions - certainly for the modern kits that are designed using CAD where the template shapes should be pretty easy to create from the CAD software..

[Billos]

On 15/02/2024 at 17:25, Work In Progress said:

Ibrush paint the canopy using the correct colour of any water-based acrylic (Revell / Airfix / Games Workshop. Xtracrylics etc). Do the interior colour first, then the exterior color. Do not worry about accuracy, just paint on the colours smoothly and don;t worry about the excess.

4. let it go touch dry but before it cures fully...

5. use a wet cocktail stick or a suitable spike-shaped piece of wooden lolly-stick, or similar, to gently scrape off the excess paint using the frame lines on the canopy

 

This may sound hard but it can be a lot quicker and in some ways easier than masking a very complex shape, if you are having to make your own masks.

I have used this method a lot. It does depend on there being clearly defined frame mouldings, and careful timing on the amount of 'dryness' of the paint. Of course it ONLY works with Acrylic paints. It will NOT work with enamel paints which bite into the plastic too much, too quickly. Enamel paints the only way is to make masks as described elsewhere.

 

Another way to do it, if the frame lines are mostly straight is to use 'invisible' tape, (Scotch Magic tape) which I paint beforehand then cut thin strips  at the frame width, stick them on the canopy and cut to length. A gentle blow with a hot air gun (or hairdryer) then melts the tape gum sufficiently to bind it to the canopy. Again you have to be careful with timing and heat! Too much heat and all you get is a sticky mess!

[malpaso]

A chap locally who showed lots of vac forms, said he would mask and paint all the circumferential frames, and then all the longitudinal ones (or vice versa).  It gave good results as many were interwar types with multiple small panes, and he said it was the easiest way he’d found. 

[Paul821]

10 minutes ago, malpaso said:

A chap locally who showed lots of vac forms, said he would mask and paint all the circumferential frames, and then all the longitudinal ones (or vice versa).  It gave good results as many were interwar types with multiple small panes, and he said it was the easiest way he’d found. 

I was about to give the same answer. I never paint the frames in one go. My method is to mask the longest (non overlapping) frames and brush paint them and then tackle the remainder. For some transparencies it can take 3 sessions but it has worked for me.

 

Some years ago I invested in some Tamiya Masking Tape, for Curves, and that has been a great help in this approach.

 

 

 

 

[rayprit]

For many helpful tutorials you cannot go wrong with the many videos by Paul Budzek; a member of this site, his canopy's is just one of 100s he has produced

 

 

 

 

[PatG]

For complex frames such as the Bf110 and Zero I always use Eduard canopy masks.

 

OK not the cheapest option but by far the easiest to apply and give a very good finish if you remember to use a cocktail stick to go around all the edges to make sure they are firmly in place with no gaps.

 

Depends how much time you are willing to spend I guess.

 

Pat.