The Little World

Or ” Keeping the windows clean in a shit storm “.

If airplanes were built like army tanks ( and some, Like the A-10 Warthog – are…) we modellers would have an easy time of it. Indeed if pilots were not such wusses and kept on insisting that they needed to be inside out of the wind, we could have a far better time in the model workshop. But things are as they are, and we have to cope with the clear plastic canopy over the cockpit or gun positions.

In the old days it was easy -as a child we could simple pat down the clear plastic canopy with our fingers covered in cement and no-one ever saw inside the cockpit anyway. And the ilder models were very sparse inside there.

Nowadays, however, we have details cast into the cockpit, added with styrene parts, or folded up from photo-etched brass. These demand to be seen clearly to justify the hard work and expense that we have been put to. If we are lucky we can add a pilot. But we’ve got to paint the canopy frames and supports to make it look real – we can’t just glue on the raw part and get away with it any more.

There are a number of approaches to this stage of the build – and they all have advantages and disadvantages. Let’s take some of the classic techniques. Today, the expert one:

Mask the clear parts of the canopy with tiny pieces of modeller’s masking tape and glue the canopy down permanently to the fuselage. This is great if you have a bigger model where the fuselage/canopy join is prominent and has to be faired in smoothly. You can use putty , paint and any other finishing technique to get that smooth transition.

The bugger of it comes when you attempt to do it in increasingly smaller scales. The masking tape bits get smaller and harder to apply – and become less certain of effect. A little gap at any edge lets in the spray paint and the canopy needs to be taken off and stripped clean. Your pristine model plan becomes increasingly worn and weathered.

There is also a problem that can occur when you have added more layers of paint colour and clear coats – the build-up on the masking tape may be stronger than the tape – when you try to strip it off, the paint comes off as well…back to square one or square zero.

The final problem with this approach is the one of finances. Sure, there are ready-made packets of masking pieces and full masking sets for popular aircraft…but they can add the cost of a kit to the cost of the kit. If you have already added the cost of a kit with paint and the cost of a kit with aftermarket resin or brass parts, you have three or four kits in your hand and a smoking hole in your hip pocket.

You must also realise that this masking tape idea is really only viable with spray painting…and mostly with airbrush work, at that. Anything heavier than the light coat of a low-power airbrush will force its way under the mask. You need to do several light coats to build up a solid colour. And you must make sure that you check the peripheral integrity of the tape every time. It can dry out and peel back.

Done well, with large enough canopy and straight enough lines, this technique is delightful. Your reveal at the end will be a cause for celebration. But reserve words of power for when it reveals a mistake.