Working on a few 1/144 aircraft with canopies. Using Vallejo acrylics
Painting the frames would be hard enough as is, but what paint to use?
Ideally they should be primed for good adhesion of the paint. So mask and prime, and then topcoating?
Or maybe go to an enamel, which might have superior adhesion to unprimed plastic?
Or
I can’t say I’ve ever attempted anything that small wth a clear canopy…
Good adhesion will be essential because I imagine it’s going to be too small to mask off the window panes individually, but you’ll be able to mask off the line of the frame and paint between the tape. But then the problem arises when you want to go the other way, and you’re going to be setting mask down over what you’ve already painted. I think an enamel or a Tamiya alcohol-based acrylic would probably be the way to go.
I’d be curious to know if there’s a safe way to “chemically etch” the clear plastic so you don’t need a separate primer. Acetone would probably work, but it would only take a minor escape under your mask to create a disaster (don’t ask me how I know…)
What kind of paint do you use to paint a plastic canopy window sunglass green? And, Do you paint the outside of the window or the inside of the window? I’ve heard of liquid green?
Many manufacturers have transparent colours in their line up. I’ve used Tamiya and Gunze (the old ones). Testors used to have transparent colours in their sprays, not sure if still available, but they worked really well.
Airbrushing would be the best choice for consistency in colour, but some smaller areas could be done by hand. The trick is to make one or two passes and then let it dry. Going over it a few times as it’s drying will cause streaks no matter what.
Most of the time you will want to tint the inside of the surface, this leaves the smooth plastic on the outside where it will shine. If doing lights and other small pieces you may need to do the outside, this changes the look, so may not be what you want depending on subject.
This particular canopy is a solid little nugget of clear plastic with a molded outline of the framework. No real interior to speak of, and I don’t see tinting it.
Sorry @Binky the above was a reply to @Chopper_Chief about the tinting.
I haven’t done any really small scale aircraft, but maybe this trick will help. I’ve seen people paint some decal film with the same paint as the plane. Then they cut very thin strips of decal to make the framing on the canopy.
I haven’t tried this yet, but it is something I think I’ll need to do soon on a Stuka kit.
Have some enamel on the way. Will remove the acrylic and take a different approach.
Have an He111 in 1/144 scale on order, so I’ll need to be on top of my game.
I think it would depend on the type of aircraft. When I do 1/144 airliners I generally glue and fill the windscreen and use decal/s to represent the windows.
I do have a 1/144 F-14A to figure out so I’ll be watching.
Okay. I’m going to strip the acrylic paint off with IPA, and spray the canopy with Tamiya clear gloss coat. Then brush either enamel or acrylic frame details. I am assuming that the coat will act as a base for the paint to adhere to. We’ll see. 
If you plan carefully so as not to place the tape over already-done parts, you could use Dymo tape or scribing tape and a Fineliner pen. At that scale, I bet black would probably be indistinguishable from dark green. The durability wouldn’t be very good, but then, how much handling will these get?
Very little handling. Black or green, no significant difference.
Next up, 12 clear factory windows with frames.
