"1/300th pilots and canopies" Topic

Hi all

I've been thinking about ways to paint/model canopies since a discussion with my air gaming buddies last week.

I had this crazy idea to cut out the canopy of some of my 1/300th aircraft and replace it with a pilot(s) and a clear canopy. I thought of making the canopy from a blister pack and somehow vaccum mold it over the shape before I cut it off. Then get half a 6mm figure and paint it up as a pilot.

Has anyone tried something similar to this?

I have hundreds of 1/300th aircraft so I cant see me doing this to all of them.

Cheers
kieran

My suggestion, get CinC's SBD Dauntless kit. Canopies are back and pilot and gunner are exposed. It might make a good guide to work from. Sounds like a chalanging project. BTW, one of their F-16 kits come with separate canopy, but no pliot, for a modern version.

I didnt know that about the CNC F-16 and thats a good idea about the Dauntless. I have some of their Me262s and they are beautifully cast.

Thanks for the info

Cheers
kieran

I'm sorry but I think you're going to gain so little aesthetic benefit for a lot of pain. I think I'd spend my time just experimenting with effective ways of painting the solid model. Might be worth getting some photos of restored warbirds flying to get an impression of just what is visible at distance.

If you have clear cockpits you're still going to have to paint an impression of the inside of the plane.

I agree with Timmo uk, however you might have fun trying. At 1/300th I wouldn't try to make hollow canopies but you could try carving canopies from the clear sprues in plastic kits--that is how modelers in larger scales make their wingtip lights. polishing and painting with a clear gloss would restore the transparency lost during shaping. Drilling into the bottom of the solid canopy and painting the inside of the hole would represent the pilot.

I think if I were doing this I would go for jewelling the cockipits, like the Battletech players paint their mech cockpits.

Here is a pretty good "paint" example that looks pretty real: picture

The painter used lots of brush "glosscoat"

Bill