When to mount the cockpit canopy.....

[Wurger]

There was asked a question about when to mount the canopy to a model. There is an answer with a few points mentioned. Because it's better to see then use an imagination I've decided to post the thread with a way I followed when making the Airfix Bf 109E model. I hope it can come in handy to all of you who might be in trouble with the part of assembling of a model.

To begin with...

Fitting of these "glassy" parts has to be checked. It is important because all gaps and other imperfections are clearly seen when a paint is applied. Especially if it is a silver colour or other metalic ones.
My first step then , was to check its fitting to the fuselage. Unfortunately I did it to the rear and central pieces of the cockpit conopy only. It was a mistake becuse it appered that the front windshield didn't fit to the fuselage at all. It was a little bit strange as there were two variants of the cockpit conopy attached to the kit ( the early one for E-1/E-3 type and the later one used with E-4 and later Bf109Es). The later conopy fitted to fuselage well.



The rear part of the cockpit conopy and its fitting.....




Then the glass was masked and glued to the fuselage. The cockpit interior had been painted but still without its details. I attached them later as the cockpit "hole" in the fuselage was big enough to set them ther correctly. As shown in the first pic below it was masked with the Tamiya masking tape and the Mascol was applied on the rear glass additionally. I did it because the entire model has been airbrushed with RLM65 colour overall. And the frame of the conopy was of RLM02 inside.The Humbrol enamel got a function of a primer as well....

[Wurger]

Having the work showed above done, I started working on the front windshield. It was cut out of a sprue. All imperfections were removed by sanding and polishing. Then I masked it with the Tamiya tape.






The next step was to check on fitting of the entire cockpit conopy. As I have mentioned it ealier I didn't check the fitting of the front part.There was a gap of 2mm or so at front area between the windshield and the fuselage. Also the front glass went too deep into the cockpit hole in the fuselage. So I wasted some time to get it correct....

[Wurger]

In order to correct the mount of the windshield I had to add a shaped thin plastic strip to the front edge of the piece and some of the styrene to bottom ones...




The effect of my job to the area you cen see below. I would like to make a focus on the fact that the layer of the RLM65 paint was damaged when I was sanding and fitting the part. It had to be straighten by additional airbrushing of the colour at the damaged area in order to achieve the smooth and solid surface there...






Also masking of the windshield became a good protection when operating the part during the work on it.

[Wurger]

The central part of the cockpit conopy was masked and painted separately. Of course the real part was movable and could be made as the same for the model. Initially it was airbrushed with the interior colour RLM02 and then with RLM70/71. When paints were hardened I removed masking and put the part away...






The farther work was running according to the way of applying of the main camo scheme. All surfaces that had to stay of RLM65 colour were masked. Notice please that the parts of the cockpit conopy had already been glued to the fuselage and the cockpit hole was masked again. The first colour of the camouflage was RLM02 so I didn't need to mask them additionally as the cockpit frame was of the same paint applied inside of the cockpit. Also the masking of the cockpit conopy was still there when applying the second colour of the camo scheme...

[Wurger]

The masking of the cockpit conopy stayed there untill all work on the model was finished. In these shots below you can see that it was there when mottling, applying a gloss and matt varnishes, decal markings, making exhaust stains, etc...

[Wurger]

At the end , I have removed the cockpit masking and attached the central part of the conopy. And I got the final effect ...

[jjp_nl]

Excellent tutorial, just one question that comes to mind. How do you go about cutting the tape (in one piece) to the right shape/size? I ended up masking my clearparts with little pieces at a time 'cause until now I didn't quite manage to figure out a way to mask a clearpart without cutting the tape in small bits.

I'm especially interested in how you make that happen with odd shapes, angles and corners, like on the windscreen and back part of the hood. The central section seems fairly straight forward with it's all but rectangular shape, but the windscreen and back end of the hood have some interesting shapes/angels/corners to work around when masking it .

[Wurger]

Thank you.

I see. It is quite easy to do. The first step is to stick gently a piece of quite wide tape to the "window" you need to mask. Usually a frame of a cockpit conopy is made as a kind of a bas-relief, right?. And its bulging edges are a natural "borderline" you have to fit the masking to.
The Tamiya masking tape is quite "soft" and elastic so it is easy to strech it a little bit or fit to the curvature of any surfaces. For it I use a toothpick. Then I use a pencil to draw around the inner shape of the glass going along the inner edge of the frame.
The next step is to unstick the piece of tape and cut out that the drawn mask with scissors. Then I stick it back to the conopy, paying attention to fitting and sticking of its edges. If it is needed I use a toothpick for any correction to that.
And voila.....

[jjp_nl]

Muchos gracias! I was already beginning to wonder where the pencil streaks on the masks came from, but it's makes total sense now. Thanks for the explanation. Gonna give that a try sometime soon!

[Wurger]

No problem. Glad I helped.

[vikingBerserker]

That was excellent, thanks for taking the time to post this!

[copcheck]

Thank you! Excellent.

[Wurger]

My pleasure.

[woljags]

nice master class ,well done

[al49]

Very nice and helpful, thanks!
Alberto