OK, i love building aircraft, and am getting pretty good with smmoth panel lines, and nice paint jobs. However, there is one thng i just can;t seem to get. Canopies. My hands must shake to much, because nomatter what i do, the results are allways disappointing .
So how about fast frames? Have you used them? any tricks or things i should watch out for? THanks for the help Bill
If you mean the Fast Frames from Squadron, I would avoid them. The idea was good but the execution was bad. Most of them just didn’t fit. If you want to pay the price, the precut masks from Eduard or Black Magic are a better, though not perfect, solution.
Regards, Rick
I love them. But use good ones. The first ones I used were Eduard’s old vinyl ones, and they, quite frankly, sucked. They did not adhere to the slightest curve. So I was put off of pre-cut frame masks for a long time. However, Eduard, as I mention at least once a day now, is making theirs out of Tamiya’s yellow tape and they are unbeatable. So are the wheel masks they are making.
Everyone who uses them has a favorite brand, and some modelers won’t touch them, preferring Bare Metal Foil or their own private method. However, I think the best are EZ Mask, because he makes them with material that will stretch and contract to fit the frame if you don’t put it on exactly right the first time (and who can), and it doesn’t lose any of its masking ability while you adjust.
And while we’re on the subject, Chris, who with his nice wife runs EZ Mask company from their home in, I think, Nebraska, is looking around for ideas from modelers like us for new things to mask. He has branched out into such things as RAF squadron codes, and he wants ideas on new things to make masks for so we don’t have to rely on decals as much. Email him and send in your suggestions at www.ezmasks.com.
TOM
Tom, the Fast Frames aren’t masks. They were intended to be painted on the precut sheet & then applied over the kit canopy frames, relying on a pressure sensitive adhesive to hold them in place. They released a bunch , then stopped a few years ago, but you can still find them. Like I said, a good idea, but poorly executed.
Regards, Rick
[#ditto] I’ve used EZ MASK and love them. Great service too.
Matt
FOund the ez masks web site, that looks like the ticket. Thanks everyone. BIll
If you save the ‘cut outs’ on the Easy Mask sheet you can make a template. Use the template to make your on cut outs out of masking tape. Since of us model basically the same a/c more than once you can have a mask file. Time/money savings. Or do I just have way too much time on my hands?[2c]
Rick, you are absolutely right. I had completely forgotten them. I bought several when they first appeared, thinking this was what I’d been waiting for all my life in modeling, because like most of us I hate painting canopy frames. Alas, as fate would have it, I never got to use them. And, by coincidence, I was going through the decal stack in a hobby shop a couple of months ago and found two fast frames stuck in there priced at 1.95. I bought them because they were so cheap, even though I have no kit to put them on and no plans to build them anytime soon. They are for 1/48 P-40N (AMT) and MiG 15bis (TAM) kits. Well, I suppose that AMT Warhawk is now out of the question, but if you wanted to I’ll bet these bad boys would fit on a vacform True Detail/Falcon canopy. Each one has two separate frames in case you screw one up. That was prophetic.
TOM
Masking and spraying is the key. I used to have a steady hand, but there’s just no way to get a perfect finish (well, at least for me). But masking and spraying, whether aribrush or aerosol does the trick.
Chris Loney is the owner of Easy Masks and he lives in Onterio, Canada. IMHO these are the best masks I’ve used.
Dean
Dean:
You are right. I’m 0 for 2 on this thread so I’d better shut up. However, by a rather wonderful coicidence I got a package from Chris today with a large sampling of what he’s up to lately. He sent along some masks I need for current builds, but also a sampling of his RAF WW II squadron code masks (for which he has a deal wherein if you buy a sheet of his masks, he will send you a sheet of custom ordered ones to go with it to fit your particular needs for letters and numbers), his different colored striping for reproducing that thin line of yellow, black or cream-colored “weather stripping” that’s so hard to paint on canopy frames, and a number of other various shapes and figures common to a/c modeling which we usually use decals for. I’m looking forward to the day I can model without using decals for anything but elaborate unit and personal insignia, and dry transfers for the stripes and stencils. We are getting there slowly and surely with lots of outstanding cottage industry work like Chris’ EZ Mask and Mr. Kim’s Hobbydecal dry transfers which, if you haven’t used them, you really don’t know what you’re models are missing.
TOM