I'm looking into painting some of my ships and the designs I want to do don't really favor the black canopy that most all ships have. A there a paint that almost makes it look as if the canopy is clear. Or is there any other ways to get the canopy to shine so I can paint black around it??
Thanks for your help!
Hi, well, your best bet is painting a 'glow' colour onto your cockpit to contrast with your black bodywork - it's the same technique you use for painting visors on helmets. You can choose your colour - blue, red and green all work well. Bad news is, it takes a bit of time and skill, good news is, it's great practice!
Have a look at this video, and make sure you a) learn to make a simple wet pallet (real easy) and b) go easy on yourself and buy a 4/0 brush. Good luck.
Cheap trick is to paint a metallic color on top (I prefer gunmetal) and then put a black wash over the top.
Not sure if it would be the look you're after, but you could always paint gloss coat on the canopy to make it shiny. Two good coats and it'll catch the light pretty well like glass would.
Not sure if it would be the look you're after, but you could always paint gloss coat on the canopy to make it shiny. Two good coats and it'll catch the light pretty well like glass would.
I am with Dosiere on this one... Get a small jar of brush on acrylic gloss varnish, and do thin coats. The thin coats help to keep the finish smooth, and to speed up drying time.
I also recommend picking up a few small pet oral syringes to use for the purpose of adding consistent amounts of water to thin out both the varnish and your paints. The ones I use are about as long as a K-wing, and look like this :
What I've done in the past is to use a metallic color like gold,bronze or copper. After it dries coat it with a transparent color. You can use Smoke over silver or red or green over the gold,bronze, etc. These give the illusion of a tinted canopy.
Something that I haven't tried yet is painting a very thin line of silver on top of the gold to act as a highlight or reflection before the transparent colors are added.
Another option is to treat the canopies like gems. There are several very good tutorials on gem painting on YouTube. My favorite is on the Buypainted channel. I think this approach works best with canopies that are rounded like the A-Wing rather than flat like an X-Wing.
Tamiya, Vallejo and several other companies produce colored transparent paints. You can get creative and try yellows, oranges or various mixtures until you're satisfied with the results.
I hope this helps. Let me know how you like results or have any other questions.
I like the syringe idea! Can't believe I've never run across it. Been painting for almost 20 years and I've always used the brush to add water, fiddling with the mixture until I'm happy with it.
Most pharmacies will give those out free.