Several companies make excellent canopy masks that are printed on an adhesive medium. The masks are in exact shape of the area you want to mask so only the framing receives a coat of paint.
I’m wonder if anybody has tried to make such masks by perhaps tracing the shape from the canopy onto paper. This paper master could be used to make appropriate masks from masking/adhesive tape. I do realize modelers use bits and pieces of masking tape but this is not easy to do if the area is oval in shape. Straight pieces of tape work for straight edges but do poorly in tight spots or spots with rounded corners.
Any ideas
P.S. Some modelers will cover the entire canopy with bare-metal foil or parafil and then use a knife to trim away the excess. They actually score the canopy sufrace with the knife hoping they won’t cause too much damage. I’m against the idea. I won’t put the knife anywhere near the clear plastic.
You can cut out the middle-man by just using masking tape. Apply the tape to the canopy and burnish it into the edges of the frame with a toothpick. Then use a sharp pencil to define the edges of the areas to be masked, remove them from the canopy, apply them sticky-side down to a hard, clean surface ( a ceramic tile works well for this).
Then, using a steel ruler and a new #11 blade, cut out the individual masking pieces and apply them to the canopy. Burnish them down again, and you’re all set!
To be honest, though, for aircraft with multi-pane canopies and other glazing, aftermarket self-adhesive paper masks are money well spent! For simple subjects like a P-51D or a F-16, however, they’re a waste of money. Masking canpies is not as difficult as it’s made out to be. For larger areas in particular, you can cut thin edge pieces of masking tape to size, and then fill in the remaining areas with further rectangles of tape. The glazing on this Hobbyboss 1/72 T-6G:
and AM (Italeri re-pop) 1/48 Il-2:
were masked using the method described above, but I use pre-cut aftermarket masks for anything much more complicated.
I’ve sprayed the fuselage color on decal paper, covered it with decal-set, and then cut out strips to match the frame-width. I also free-hand canopies, provided I haven’t had too much coffee that day…
I have to agree with Chris on this one. If you are building a Ju87 or a TBF Avernger pre cut canopy masks are the only way to go. i myself would not even build a subject such as one of these unless i had a mask set. There are some die hard modelers that make all of there own masks but to me I would rahter spend my precious modeling time glueing painting and sanding instead of cuting up tiny peices of masking tape. i would strongly not recomed BMF as a canopy masking agent even though there was an article in the FSM about it. it will always leave a residue behind that must be cleaned up. Tamiya masking tape is the absolute best masking agent by far in my opinion. I use it exclusively for canopys or and hard edge camo patterns. Scotch’s blue low tack tape works good for covering up where ever you want to keep overspray off of. Another option is Fast Frames. the are not masks they are the frame itself. You prepaint them on the sheet then carefully transfer them over to the canopy. You get nice clean straight lines and you can adjust them until you get them just right them set them down. Also as Chris has already said if i am building something like a P-51 D or something similar masking it with Tamiya tape is very simple and I do not use the precut masks. When you decide which one is for you post some pics so we can see the results. Good luck!
I use Bare Metal Foil and an Exacto knife exclusively to mask my kits, and I can’t say that I’ve ever scored the clear plastic with my knife. Maybe I’m just getting lucky with it. I use very light pressure with a new blade to cut the foil, and never have a problem. But, now that I’ve typed this, my next canopy will have score marks all over it. [(-D]
How many of you have had a mask allow paint to bleed under and ruin the canopy?
I’ve always tried to use Parma Liquid Mask on unpainted plastic for a mask, canopies included. The knife cut (very delicately with a new blade) sinks the mask and does not allow the paint to bleed under. It makes it’s own barrier and will be unseen.
This model was built and the canopy installed before the exterior paint. The canopy frame came out crisp and delicate without any use of tape.
Use quality masking material (Tamiya tape or BMF) and burnish it down well.
Protect your canopy with Future (but you do this anyway, don’t you?) Then, if you do get any bleed-under, you can carefully remove it, once the paint is fully dry, with a toothpick, possibly lightly dampened with a suitable thinner (try isopropanol first, since it’s the least aggressive. Try to avoid cellulose/ laquer thinner). The Future prevents damage to the plastic.
Overspray the canopy, once you’ve installed the masking, with gloss varnish. This will form a seal between the canopy and the edge of the masking, and prevent further bleed-under.
However, in my experience, method (1) is totally effective, at least 95% of the time.
If you dip the canopies in future a day before you use the BMF, any residue from the BMF can easily be removed with a little WD-40 on a cutip. Now… one caveat… I use enamels exclusively… not sure how this would affect acrylics.
I use the liquid masking agents like Micro Mask. It solves the problem of bleed under quite nicely, and when the paint is dried after spraying, I just run a new #11 blade gently around the edge of the framing detail and lift off the masking where the glass is. I use it in many other application areas and on automotive models, too. Apparently, this method is not very popular, but I use it almost exclusively.
