I figure the Texan is pretty high on the list
just imagine a 1/144 Texan… nightmarish!
Well, I’ve run into a few Hellish canopy masking jobs.
High on the list, if not top spot, is Monogram’s 1/72 B-36 Peacemaker. I can’t imagine that masking job at 1/144 for the Hobbycraft kits.
I’ve always found P-38 canopies to present problems in masking.
The F-16 canopy is deceptively difficult, because you only have one little area of framing and no flat surfaces to tack masking down to. The best way is to cut your masking into little narrow strips so they’ll conform to the curvature better and avoid the possiblity of air bubbles or premature lifting of the mask during painting.
Try a TBF/TBM Avenger in any scale. The main canopy and windshield sections aren’t too awful bad, but lookit that ball turret!
I’ve been building for 20 years and masking canopies still intimidates me sometimes. I’d like to build a Stuka or a Mossie, but those canopies kinda scare me…
Fade to Black…
The worst for me was the Airfix focke wulf fw 189 ( I think i got the number right) that thing was a real pig to mask. I agree that The B36 is a bad one too also the italeri He 111z zwilling…Greg
The pair of 1/72nd B25 Mitchell’s that I painted last month, All masked with Tamiya tape. Never again!
B-29 can be a pain as wellas the stepped canopy on a P-61. Of course as Blackwolf mentioned there’s the odd ball on the Avenger.
Despite all the new canopy masks that have come our way the last ten years. (Yes Fast Frames has been around that long now!)[:0]
Canopy masking on WWII multi paneled compound curves and the like are still what can make or break a brilliant build. All that gluing, sanding, painting, detailing your done and oh my! You goofed on the canopy!!! UUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!![xx(]
And it’s not limited to WWII, the jets are not so easy either, hmmm I would rather do a NMF F-100, flip a coin!
Fly Navy![8)]
My vote is for the Avenger also. The fact that I’m currently working on one has in no way affected my vote ( yeah right! ).
Darren
the bottom glass on a Tamiya Buffalo has a lot of small pains.
Well right now its a Ju 188, but thats cause its on the workbench.
I do a few panes at a time,using tamiya tape,whrn I get tired I go on to something
else
patience is the one tool I cant seem to find for sale
I would have to agree on the Avenger. I did one about a year ago and belive me I feel I spent more time on the masking of the canpoies than the whole kit itself[xx(].
The other a/c that comes to mind is the Bf-110. Now thats a green house for ya !!
Flaps up,Mike
OMG, I always had troubles with canopies masks, but the record was a Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser, 1/144. Twenty little windows to mask. I got but it was too hard.
[B)]
Yup…any of the WWII German bombers (He-111…Ju-88) are rough-- very geometric and HUGE greenhouses…I can’t imagine trying the Zwilling!
That is always the part that takes the longest for me-- I always put it off forever-- I HATE canopies 
There are at least three canopies from Hell:
Ju 86 A [:(]
Ju 88 A [:(!]
Ju 188 E [xx(]
Pete
The worst I’ve run into were the B-36, Academy B-29’s, Airfix’s TBD Devastator in 1/72, and ANY 1/72 WWII US trainer with enclosed canopy! - Ed
Haven’t mentioned the Avenger here because I haven’t opened the box on mine yet!!!
The hardest for me is the PBY-5 Catalina canopy…mainly because it didnt come with the kit and i cant find one…so i guess that makes it pretty hard to mask
I have to agree that ww2 luftwaffe bombers are stinkers,however i,m a decorator by trade and tend to use a 0000 sieze brush, being used to painting real windows (without masking).but, my last six models have all been ww1 so no glazing there…but all that rigging!! i think i,ll start that defiant kit,bomber style turret ,fighter style canopy (and there vac formed)[:D]
My personal pain is that I love German WWII aircraft, but I hate painting complicated greenhouse canopies. I’ve had a Hasegawa Stuka finished, waiting to get the urge to do the canopy, for about 5 years.
Just gotten myself a Revell Ju88. Besides it being more of a kiddies toy than anything remotely like a model kit, it confirmed the how-in-the-name-of-Bob-will-I-paint-thatness of WW2 German greenhouses… Thankfully the cockpit glass is so thick (I’d guess about 4 scale inches all round, if not more…) it completely distorts the interiour, thus hiding the horrendous lack of detail.
I always find the the most difficult canopy to mask is the one I happen to be working on at the time. I hate canopies! But I’m getting better with them.
Tom