I've been repainting my X-Wing ships, and took on the (almost obligatory) Kath Scarlet / "Marauder" Firespray-31. I'm pretty happy with the red and white of my paint scheme, but the canopy is driving me crazy. The attached image below shows my Firespray-31, with its really lumpy canopy, in juxtaposition with the amazing job done by LightCraftMinis.

The insanely-talented Madeline of LightCraftMinis did a great Sabine Wren-themed Firespray-31 with a gloriously even, smooth, slick canopy. In reading her process description, she mentioned that she achieved this canopy with three coats of Citadel 'Ard Coat gloss varnish.

My canopy is a lumpy mess in comparison. I started with an even coat of Vallejo black, and tried to build up a nice glossy canopy using Vallejo brush-on gloss varnish. I *really* overdid it in my first attempts, and had to sand off the paint/canopy to start over. My second attempt, shown to the right below, is a little better ... but it's still really lumpy and uneven. The pictured result is ~5 thin coats of the varnish. I'm about ready to sand off the canopy again to give this another try before I strip all of the paint off of this ship.

What's the best way to achieve a nice glossy canopy on these ships? Lots of very thin coats? Fewer thick coats? Do I wait 12 hours for each coat to dry, or can I reapply a new coat of gloss varnish when the milkiness of the prior coat disappears? Is there a guide or video on how to use gloss varnish anyone can point me to?

In my next Firespray attempt, I'm going to mask off the original canopy before repainting to see if I can save its nice finish. That's fine and good for a black end product, but I want to experiment with other colors on this delicious ship.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

There are a number of ways to get a smooth glossy canopy. The simplest would be to spray paint a glossy varnish on your canopy or to use a paint with a glossy finish to begin with.

I've tried the brush on gloss (Vallejo) and it's a little thick. You can and should thin it down, but the main thing is to keep it wet on the surface that you're working on until you have the area covered in the gloss varnish. It's tricky to do on the Firespray since it's a relatively large canopy compared to most SW ships, so if it's something you can avoid doing, do so.

You mentioned you want to try different colors, so what I would do is this: paint the ship & canopy whatever way you're happy with. Then you can either mask off the canopy so you can spray it with a clear gloss and be done.

However, you may not want to mask right away, because a gloss coat can do something pretty neat: if before you apply a wash, you do a gloss coat over the whole of the ship. When you apply the wash, it runs more readily into the cracks and crevices, giving you more defined edges & shadows. Once it's dry, you can mask off the glossy canopy to protect it, and do a coat of matte varnish to get back the flat finish.

Obviously, if you use an air brush or rattle cans for painting or varnish, you want to spray from the correct distance so it doesn't run or muddy any details, or conversely you don't want it to dry in the air before it gets to your model (typically happens on hotter days) causing speckles. Also be mindful of humidity, which can cause cloudiness in your finish.

-----------------------------

If you have questions about stripping your models, don't hesitate to ask. Lots of folks here are happy to help pass along the knowledge.

I like using Future Floor Wax, which, um... my bottle still says on it, despite that being bought out by another company some years ago. It's a clear acrylic that's normally used to make floors shine, but model makers have commonly used it to shine and fill in imperfections on clear plastic canopy/windows. I find it's cheaper (per quantity) and very consistent results (which I don't always find from model gloss paints)

I had good results with Vallejo gloss varnish, although I haven't used it for cockpits yet and not on surfaces as big as the Firespray's cockpit. So I might run into the same trouble as you eventually

Anyway, I needed about 3 thin layers. Used a little bit of water to let the varnish flow better. Don't know the drying time, but I guess it was about 24 hours. As most of my painting is 'assembly line'.

Oh and before I forget; I used a 'matt spray' (army painters) on the whole model before I applied the gloss.