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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: Tim Wescott on February 01, 2019, 08:48:24 PM
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What's the best paint to use for canopies? I want to paint framing onto a canopy. Because it's for a profile, I very much doubt that I'll be able to get inside, so even the framing needs to get painted on the outside.
And -- the finish of the overall plane is going to be dope. Is dope compatible to paint directly onto a clear canopy? Do I need to do anything special? I'm hoping to inset the canopy into the fuselage and paint about the first 1/8" or so of canopy, so stop me now if that's a dumb thing to do with dope.
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Unless it's extremely thin plastic, dope will be fine to use on the canopy, right along with your painting the rest of the model. A light sanding of the areas to be painted with some 600 or 800 or so will help the adhesion.
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Dope was compatible with the old clear canopy sheet stock. I think it was cellulose acetate. It drove me crazy, but a modeling buddy would sand the canopy along with the primered airplane, and again at the color sanding stage. It looked ruined. But when he shot clear on the whole plane, the canopy turned clear again and was beautiful.
My fear is that the plastic currently offered in hobby shops is no longer acetate, which the dope would melt into, for unquestioned adhesion. (Hence the prior comment about the thickness of the material, I think.) It now may be something that is not so easy to get adhesion. But I don't know what is being sold anymore. K&S and SIG don't seem to list it on-line. The Brodak website says it sells SIG plastic, but doesn't say what the material is. Perhaps polycarbonate. Maybe Mikey can tell us?
If things are looking tough, check out what the R/C car guys do. They are painting polycarbonate (Lexan) bodies with Tamiya PS series paints, which they claim to be fuel-proof. But I think you would have to mask this off before doping.
Let us know what you figure out--we have the same issues....
Dave
https://www.tamiyausa.com/tamiya-spray-paints/
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Dope usually works fine for painting the frame. I don't think I'd paint clear over the whole canopy. I won't again. After a while the shrinkage causes the canopy to mis-shape or ripple. Also after some time in the sun the clear on the canopy will yellow and age the airplane in a hurry. The plastic by itself usually will stay clear and hold shape.
Dave
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Good info, Dave T.
I get questions about my igNoblarf canopy. It started out clear, but has turned a smoky gray with age. Only thing I can think of is the oil in the fuel, but that is either SIG castor or Klotz Benol--and they aren't gray....
Dave H