Tint for Prowler canopy

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I am getting ready to start Hasegawa’s 1/72 scale EA-6B Prowler. Any ideas to get the gold tint effect for the canopies?

Thanks in advance!

Marc

2

Future tinted with Tamiya acrylics has worked well in the past for me.

I can’t specifically advise on the Prowler colour, but Tamiya clear colours & regular colours can be mixed easily with Future. I usually initially tint with the closest clear & then use regular Tamiya acrylics to get the match as close as possible - you can spray test on clear acetate to check your mix.

3

You really can’t get the reflective gold color that you are talking about. Its one of those elusive techniques that hasn’t been discovered yet. The best you can hope for is a brownish/yellow tint.

4

You might try adding the slightest bit of Tamiya Flat Aluminum [XF-16] to the mix. Experiment with that. One thing I noticed a while back after dry brushing a cockpit was if I didn’t clean my brush well enough, I saw a reflective quality to the Red-Brown and NATO Brown I was using for painting the exhausts of some build. This allowed me to come up with a thinned out wash of Flat Aluminum to paint the scuffed/chipped paint areas. I’ve never tried it yet with clear parts, but it may be worth a try.

5

I’ve had some success using a mix of red and yellow food coloring and future.

I didn’t do an entire canopy, but it worked for 1/72nd E-2 Hawkeye side and top cockpit windows.

6

Mixing paint in like aluminum or even the Alclad II Polished Brass won’t work. Those paints are not transparent and you will see a bit of fogginess in the clear part. I experimented with these techniques on a clear Academy F-22 canopy and it just didn’t look good at all.

7

I usually spray a light mist of alclad gold on the inside of the canopy. it gets you pretty darn close. Here is a viper I did as an example.

8

I read in an FSM a suggestion where someone took an airbrush bottle and just barely covered the bottom with Tamiya Titanium Gold then filled the rest of the way with future. Shake it, let it sit about 12 hours, and then dunk your canopy as normal. I haven’t tried it, but it would be easy to test on a spare canopy or just some clear sprue.

Groot