How do you recreate gold tinted canopied? Especially in 7/72 scale?
This is less than no help at all, but maybe it will be encouraging to know that I too have seen such a technique. I just don’t remember much about it. It involved taking the residue from an empty bottle of gold metalizer swabbed out with a Q-Tip or patch of toilet tissue, and rubbing it on the inside of the canopy. Or was it the outside?
I use this residue in any metal shade, getting it by either using an empty bottle or, more often, turning the Metalizer on its top for a few minutes, then opening it and taking what I need for the job from the cap. It can be brushed on, and it can be wiped on for subtle effects. It has a sort of waxy consistency while still a bit damp from the laquer thinner-type medium in which the pigment is suspended.
TOM
The March '04 FSM has an article on Future. One of the uses is just for that. It suggests “adding a few drops of Tamiya Gold Leaf (X12) to a couple of teaspoons of Future.” Never tried it, but worth a shot I guess. Maybe somebody else can help out more. Good luck!
For “gold” tinted canopies, I use a mixture of Tamiya Clear Yellow and Smoke. Then I thin it 1:1 and mist it on the canopy with my AB until I’m satisfied with the shade. Then I overcoat with clear to bring back the clarity. Hope this helps.[:)]
i find that dunking the canopy in tinted future did not produce an incredibly even color throughout the canopy. i still used the method on my 1/144 tomcat because of the size it didnt realyl matter if it wasnt that even, but for a 1/72 bird i would reccomending tinting future with food coloring and then airbrushing it on.
Someone in the Navy GB has posted some great pics of a Hornet on a flight deck (from memory). Although not a Gold tinted cockpit canopy, they did have that cool blue colour. This they acheived through blue food colouring added to Future. I was thinking that if you used yellow food colouring, you could end up with a similar effect for gold canopy??
Certainly not tried … but it might work [;)]
I have made a canopy “gold” by adding yellow food coloring to Future and dipping the whole thing in it. It turned out pretty nice with the right shade of tint (for me). I used it on my F18 Blue Angels in 1/48.
Don
hahaha, cossack, that guy was me, and it was a tomcat , not a bug [;)] i used blue food coloring, but the only thing i was dissatisfied with as mentioned was the lack of a good even pigment distrubution, due solely to the future tending to pool at the edges. yellow food coloring should to work, but put in alot of food coloring and give the canopy many coats
If you use the Tamiya Gold leaf, let it settle a while so the metallic flecks are in the part you use. Just skim from the top. I used this and it looked OK, but wasn’t very dark.
The gold color you refer to comes from a combination of a coating on the screens called ‘Indium Tin Oxide’ and a simple tinted glass. It’s used to reduce the penetration of radar evergy into the cockpit and is used on several modern aircraft. The Indium Tin itself is almost clear but does have an irridecent quality about it. When added over the top of a bronze tinted glass, it sometimes appears gold to the eye. I’ve worked in the optical field for many years, and havinf done many tint and mirror coating jobs on eyeglasses know a little anyway about these sort of multi coatings.
I actually inquired to a few companies (most of which were in England or Europe) as to what it would cost to actually have the canopy of my F-117A stealth coated with real indium tin. It’s a cold process so melting the plastic wasn’t a factor. However, cost was. For a small piece like a 1/48 canopy, it would have cost somewhere around $350-500. Not exactly an easy way to go - unless you’re the US government.
I’ve used yellow (food coloring) tinted Future to replicate the tint. If you spray several light coats you do get a consistancy of color.
Try taking testors gold and using only thinner as the carrier mix and spray onto a piece of clear plastic until you get the tint you like , just sart with the gold and keep thinning until you are happy then apply to the canopy, the thinner will evaporate leaving the thinned gold in it’s place. shoot light mist coats. then shoot black over it thinner the same way in slow mist coats until you get the desired effect. then a light coat of future should fix it right up. But as always test before you commit!!