1/350 scale aircraft.....

[Army of One]

What do people do to replicate the canopy on these small solid plastic aircraft.......I've thought of black....silver....light blue but discounted light blue due to colour schemes.....any suggestions welcome....cheers

[sandiego89]

I have found the best material for clear canopies in 1/350 scale aircraft is clear plastic.  In 1/700 scale you can get away with painting canopies (light blue usually works) but in 1/350 I offer clear looks best.

So what to do?  Get a sharp blade and cut off/out the solid kit canopy and replace with a clear canopy from a kit that has them, or file a clear solid piece of plastic and glue into place.  Yes can be time consuming, but worth it IMO.

Get the magnifying glass handy!   

Here are some examples I did, sorry they pictures are not the best. 

Scratch 1/350 Convair SeaDarts.  The canopy is from a Trumpeter 1/350 A-7 kit, which has a separate sprue for the canopy.  The Trumpeter kits have a high quality, hollow canopy.   




The cut and file method.  Scratch 1/350 F-102, with the fuselage being partially from a A-7.  The canopy is the top half of a F/A-18 nose cut down and filed to shape.  The F/A-18 had already been sacrificed to supply P6M Sea master engine nacelles.   





The F-102/TF-102 production line.  Note the clear noses. Before the canopies were installed. 

[zenrat]

Clear noses for the prone bomb aimer?

[Army of One]

Wow...some great work there.....the kits i have are Tamiya 1/350 designed I think for the Enterprise carrier kit......I think I'm tempted by black for the glass.....

[sandiego89]

Wow...some great work there.....the kits i have are Tamiya 1/350 designed I think for the Enterprise carrier kit......I think I'm tempted by black for the glass.....

A light black would likely be fine for the usual gray aircraft as would be seen on a modern or semi modern USN carrier deck. A true black might be too much contrast.  As you can see from the photo I have struggled and experimented for years with this dilemma in 1/700 scale.  Black, dark gray, silver, light gray, blue..

The Harrier II near the upper left looks pretty good, with a light black canopy.  The blue ones were never quite right, and would be even more pronounced in 1/350.

All the below are 1/700 (except the 1/350 F-102 in the rear)

Good luck!  Dave





 


 

[Army of One]

Wow......many thanks.....much appreciated....

[NARSES2]

You are right about that light black  The silver on the F.111 N ? looks o.k. as well

[sandiego89]

You are right about that light black  The silver on the F.111 N ? looks o.k. as well

Thanks guys, glad I could help.  For the UK F-111B (aboard the stretched Ark Royal!), I used light gray for the canopy- likely a ghost gray.  It does look good, but perhaps would not work as well on a lighter gray USN aircraft.

-Dave