Do you future your glass on helo’s? With all the small windows and such do you future your aircraft? While we are on this subject… how do you prefer to future canopies?
i dip my canopies in future. dip them slowly to avoid air bubbles. if you’re not happy with the result, alcohol will remove ti with no prob. i do future all my clear parts, paying special attentionto large glass parts such as the windscreen on the Little Lird, cuz it’s such a large and prominent feature.
Check this out for all the Future advice you’ll ever need: http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html
Ditto’s on that… [;)]
Take care,
Frank
As mentioned above swanny’s site goes into the specifcs of using future. Using that site as a guide I have alot of sucess using future. For helos its great cause with a little green food color, instant tinting 
I use Future on all my canopy/windscreen surfaces. You can’ t go wrong with the results.[:)]
YEP!!! works great, looks great!! good luck. later.
ok so i futured my bubble… but… umm… was I supposed to apply the decal prior to dipping? I have always done it after.
As another question…how do you guys color the dark-colored glass on the little bird? As I understand it, the two top panes (greenhouses on other helos) are smoke-colored. I think I have heard of a clear-smoke paint available, but I am cheap and would hate to buy a whole bottle for two windows[yuck] Any methods on how to color it with a tinted future?
Snake you are correct. Tamiya sells a color called Smoke (X-19). It comes in the mini bottles (1/3 oz). Put some drops of it in the Future til it is the shade you like and dip away. You can also use it for weathering around exhaust ports and such.
If you don’t want to buy the bottle. You can use regular food coloring in the Future to tint it. Theory being the more times you dip it the darker it gets.
The problem with the food coloring is. I haven’t seen any black food coloring. So you would have to mix what colors you have to get the black shade you may need.
Either way with the food coloring or the Smoke color. Just put drops of color in the Future you are going to be dipping the glass in until it is the shade to your liking and then just dip the piece in the tinted Future. Let it dry. If it is too lite then just dip it in again and so on until it is the shade to your liking.
HTH
Paul
What “to Future” means in a canopy/glass??!![?][?]
sorry about my english, i’m trying to improve it!![:D]
thanks all
Pedro
Pedro, futuring your canopies is nothing more than dipping the clear parts in a clear acrylic floor wax. It works wonders to improve the clarity, and makes a great barrier for masking agents, gloss coat, decal sealer… theres a hundred and one uses for the stuff. check out this link http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html
Unknownpharoah, I suppose its up to the individual modeler but I perfer to apply the future then the decal then another coat of future to seal it, then any weathering, and finally a dull coat. Applying future in this method goes along way to eliminate any “silvering” you may get from the decal.
thanks I will try it tommorow.
I would like to offer a suggetion about helo transparencies.
I can only speak with any credibility about Blackhawks but I am pretty sure that crewchiefs are the same everywhere.
I clean the windscreens and cockpit door windows before and after every mission. The canopies and chin bubbles do not get cleaned as frequently as long as visibility through them is acceptable. The gunners windows only get cleaned when it is cold outside and the cargo door windows are cleaned on an as needed basis. In my experience, this is a fairly common practice. The logic behind this is that the only glass we have is the windscreen, all other transparancies are plexiglass and the more that they are cleaned in a field environment the worse the scratches become. Even after being cleaned with window cleaner, there is a slight haze over the window. To get rid of this, I clean the window with pledge after the Windex, but this takes time that I don’t always have. Now that we are back at home station I will have the time to polish them all on a regular basis.
If you are building a heavily weathered, desert aircraft don’t worry about clear windows, clean ones often won’t be crystal clear. The cargo door windows are often oil streaked and covered with sand. Just be sure to keep the windscreen and pilot door windows clear.
If you are modeling a Stateside aircraft, the windows should sparkle all around. If they don’t, then you need to fire your crewchief.
Mac
I remember reading a post where someone tried mixing Tamiya smoke with Future, with bad resuts. The smoke didn’t disolve in the future, & ran off in streaks after it was dipped. I have not tried this myself, so I can’t say for sure.
Chris Ishmael
On a sidenote. I’m sure screaminhelo knows about this as well. Our 60’s are getting Nascar style “tear offs” for the windscreen. Don’t ask me how to replicate this. I will take some pictures when our first bird gets them.