I'm working on my first ship model, 1/700 Tamiya CV-8 Hornet Doolittle Raid. Tamiya's instruction indicates paint B-25 canopy and gun turret with gloss white. Well, in real life those are glass but the model is not molded in clear plastic. I think gloss white canopy on olive drab airframe gives too much contrast. What do you paint canopies on aircrafts on carriers in 1/700 scale? Thanks.

Steven Lu

I'm waiting to here the answer for this one myself. I will need to be painting the aircraft on my Yorktown for Flatops. They're silver with yellow wings. I was thinking a light grey, but I'm not sure.

Hi Steven,

I'm no expert on painting 700 scale aircraft, but this is how I go about it....

I paint the aircraft with matt paints (acrylics) first and then mask the area around the canopy. Then airbrush the canopy section with a matt blue paint. Peel off the mask to expose a blue glass section on the painted aircraft, and then accentuate the framing around the canopy with a dark blue or black water colour wash. This wash (diluted with tap water) should be done on matt paint, don't worry about neatness, let it dry, then take a moistened fine brush and carefully remove any excess wash off the canopy area, leaving just the wash in the recessed panel lines. The advantage of using a water colour wash is that until you seal it with a gloss coat (for the decals) you can remove as much of the wash as you wish with water. Once you are happy enough with the appearance, spray some gloss on the plane and decal it. Finish off the model by spraying a flat coat.

Here are some shots of a few aircraft in 700th scale and the tube water colours I use. (The Unyo was used as an Army transport, and therefore the Army aircraft on the deck.)








The hetzer below shows how neatness doesn't matter, let the wash dry, and then remove any unwanted paint with a moistened brush and a soft cloth.

Hey guys, I use the same method as Frank does, and I concur, it works great...I love the watercolor wash and the control of removal that you have is a bonus~with no damage to the paint job...and the results are pretty convincing, too!
Gunny

Thanks for sharing that Frank. Great tip, especially for a beginner at ships like me.

Thanks Frank for the tips and photos with water color tubes. That makes search for paint much easier.

Steven

That's a much better technique than I've used. In the past, I'd simply use silver paint. The blue with a gloss coat over it has a much better look!


Thanks!!


Tom