I just picked up Academy’s F-16 kit , and found out the canopy is supposed to have a "goldish " tint to it. i tried thinning testors gold and airbrushing it in light coats on some clear scrap, but the finish was very poor.
Any help with this would help me thanks.
hey jeff had the same problem on the first F16 i was trying to build gave up and left it clear. I got the Tamiya F16CJ Block 50 which comes with two canopies which was nice.
but as far as tinting your canopy check out swanny’s site he has alot of answers about using future on clear parts http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html
I’ve not done it, but I’ve hears of people using Tamiya Clear Yellow.
I’ve got an F-16 on the bench right now and am going to try and tackle that very thing in the next few days. I’ve used Tamiya “smoke” to tint car windows with good results. (be careful not to over-do it though, the glass tends to look darker once you intsall it)
I’m considering experimenting with various combinations of Tamiya “clear yellow” and “smoke”. My first attempt will probably be someithing in the area of 3:1 yellow/smoke, and adjust from there.
I’ve tried the future method, just seems that everything comes out way to “yellow”.
YEAH, that’s what I’ve had…the yellow was way to ‘strong’ when I tested on some scrap.
I’m still trying to decide if I can use the Hasagawa canopy from Lgend to replace the kit one, since its from academy. I’ll give the tamiya colors a try to see what i can get …I’d leave it clear , but the aircraft i;m modeling from the 174th fw here in Syracuse is gold tinted.
Thanks for the ideas , i just reread the post above i’ll try to add some Tamiya gold to the future, see if that works.
i think i remember trying to mix some acrylic into future to make a transparent color for conopies and having it not work.
tamiya makes a clear amber for turn signals and such. why not give that a shot? thing it down a lot with tamiya thinner and give it a coat or two.
hey monkey, i actually just pulled that color out of my box of paints to try it…good timing or what!
I should do my research here but what is the correct number for the Liteniing pod, i’m trying t find the ANQ ??? number for it .
I just shot a test canopy with 50/50 Tamiya yellow/Tamiya smoke, I’m pretty pleased with the result. I’m gonna give it about 48 hours, mask and paint the frame. I think it’s gonna be fine.
Maybe I’ll post a pic come Wednesday or so…
(provided disaster does not strike during painting of the frame)
Sounds like you found the needle in the haystack! My canopy just came out of a bath in Future, so i have some time to mix up some test colors.
Just beginning to think I’d have to wait for the Tamiya kit. This kit by academy really is molded poorly,thaks to clamps -n- tape most of it lines up! hope to get some pics up soon.
wrekland, just wondering …I shouldn’t have any side effects shooting tamiya over the future right? I haven’t tried overcoating after future before.
I don’t know about any type of reaction that might occur with Tamiya and anything. I’m finding more and more that Tamiya paints can be very tempermental. I started with clean “glass” and will coat with future after the fact.
I know that Tamiya paints and windex don’t get along real well. Things tend to gel up and cause some major air brush issues. I only thin/clean with Tamiya thinner when using Tamiya paints. Today I used some Tamiya clear to seal a masking tape edge, sprayed Model master paint over the clear after drying, and the Model master paint cracked and peeled anywhere there was Tamiya clear applied. The other areas sprayed during the same event that didn’t have the clear dried just fine.
Also, I’ve has some reactions with liquid mask and future. Trial and error are the best advice.
Good luck
Tamiya Thinner and Windex are almost the same thing chemically. Tamiya thinner is basically 95% Isopropyl Alcohol and Acrylic Retarder to slow down the drying time. Windex is 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and 3% Ammonia, and is best used to clean acrylic paints. You can thin with it, though my first choice is Tamiya Thinner. And in two years of airbrushing using nothing but Windex to clean my airbrush, I have never had an issue with “gel up”.
You say “Today I used some Tamiya clear to seal a masking tape edge, sprayed Model master paint over the clear after drying, and the Model master paint cracked and peeled anywhere there was Tamiya clear applied.” That is due to not allowing the Tamiya Clear sufficient time to cure. Note that there is a big difference between dried paint and cured paint.
I just gave the thread a once-over and didn’t see a reference to this - but I read somewhere recently (I thought it was here, but I could be mistaken) that you could add food coloring to Future to produce different colored tints for canopies or windshields.
Any paint is tempermental when mixed with incompatible materials. If general, the better the paint, the less tolerant of “abuse” it is.
The “problem” lies in using Windex as a thinner. You might get away with it, but you might not. The root of the matter is the ammonia. Ammonia is a very aggressive chemical, which is why it is such a good cleaner—it can play hob with the binder. Also, the “gel” issue is related to the flatting agent Tamiya uses (the stuff you buy as Tamiya Flat Base). This flatting agent is almost certainly a form of microsilica. Some forms of microsilica have a strong tendencey to form a silica gel in the presence of strongly ionic compounds—like ammonia.
That phenomenon is called crawling. Bill’s comment about cure vs. dry is much to the point. Additionally, Tamiya gloss paints may use a silicone additive. Such additives produce a very high gloss, weather-resistant surface, but can be problematic to overcoat, especially with a different brand of paint, and especially if sufficient cure time has not been given. Future is a better choice for sealing masked edges.
That’s been well documented. Many of these liquid masks contain ammonia, which attacks Future.
Indeed!
I used food colouring to tint the nav lights on my 1/72 gato and the 109 and had no problems. You may have seen it on Swannys site, and the chapter is “The Complete Future”
i’ thank everyone for their advice, i’ll try to get this canopy sprayed , just waiting for it to finish drying.
I have used tamiya paints and was told by lhs to save the money, and use MART brand rubbing alcohol to thin the paint… seems ok by what i’ve read on the posts. seems to dry really qhick though, but I’m not using a good air compressor… it tends t flutter as its running…my next upgrade on my list!!!
The rubbing alcohol will work, but needs an acrylic retarder to slow down the drying time. I don’t know if wallyworld would carry it, but it’s available at places like Micheals or Hobby Lobby, or at art stores.
HEY Bgrigg… thanks for the info. you mean the craft store ,like with the fake flowers, and all that type of stuff? Holy cow, my girlfriend would NEVER let me live it down!!! I have to listen to the endless Sighs when we go to the lhs.ok i’ll tr anything . Good thing she’s not reading over my shoulder oops gotta go thanks!!!