You know we “prop-heads” go to extreme lengths to accomodate the typically crazy mosaic patterns that you can find on any classic warbird’s canopy framing, right?
Now here is something you may wish to consider as you “sweat blood” to avoid the tiniest “fudging” on the “perfect” framing lines on your clear piece of plastic in the future (special masks and all).
I finally got around to subscribing to a magazine dedicated to historic aircraft, and in it is an actual WWII clear color photo of a taken at the North American Aircraft factory showing bunch of finished B-25’s being towed to the plant’s airfield for departure delivery.
The one in the forefront has they typical nose glazed nose canopy with olive drab painted framing, and guess what?
Some of the painted framing right on the bomber’s nose is “fatter” in places then the rest as it appears that the guys masking it didn’t sweat a little extra width in the framing’s paint job!
So now it appears that if you really want your cockpit framing to be “truly WWII authentic”, it does not pay to be as “perfect” as an immaculately restored warbird museum piece.
Thanks…its my pride and joy…lol Took a couple of months to find the Tiger Striped birch stock…but it was worth it. Refinished it and the handguards, used dark walnut wood stain, then some tung oil. All the wood is birch…but the handguards were a little too orange for my liking…and didnt really match the new stock. The dark walnut helped the wood match up pretty well. I’ll be getting a Carbine soon…so big brother and little brother will be able to play together once again! [:P]
I always believed that they did not go nuts masking those complex frames on these wartime planes. Especially if the plane was repainted in the field. I could definetly see them just masking off the whole canopy itself an repainting the rest of the plane. War is hell and no one wants to spend to much time painting a potential target I would assume.
ive never masked a canopy and i never will free hand forever besides masking takes too long anyway. my free hand stuff looks just as good as the masked stuff and you know what else im happy with the results and thats all that matters. dave
Like yourself, I have a developed steady hand (I used to do board drafting when it was in demand also), and with that, I have found masking more trouble then it is worth to me, especially with the nice “00” Testors brushes and acrylic paints you can get nowadays.
Just a quick tip for those who free hand paint canopies. If you haven’t put an external coat of Fuyture on the canopy and your free hand frames are a little wiggle try taking a wooden toothpick to the edge of the frames and gently rub the paint off that is excess. Be sure to do this before the paint completes drying. This approach works very well on canopies that have raised frames as the raised edge acts as a built in guide. The soft wooden toothpick will not damage the clear areas and you can apply a finish coat of Future to the clear areas after the rubhbing process.
Actually, if you use acrylics, you can rub the paint off even after it dries using the toothpick method.
I use a special tool I made from a piece of square plastic sprue, filing the ends to resemble a blunt chisel point like a soldering iron, for this purpose, squaring off the tips slightly to make a sharp corner.
I don’t, since injection molded model airplane canopies tend to be thick, and when you look at the framing at an angle, you will see the inside framing appear to be seperate from the outside framing.
What I do on occasion is, if it is a larger scale canopy and I want a distinctly different color on the inside, is I first paint the interior color on the framing exterior, and then re-paint over it with the exterior color. That way, when seen from inside, you will see a different color without the seperation.
