How To: Tanslucent Green Canopy glass?

[Go Flight]

I just recently had the opportunity to paint the green translucent glass on a plane. I got the Vallejo Trans green and put it into an airbrush. The dusting coat seemed to be more opaque and as I put more on I could see the light come thru as green, but it still didn't look like actual see thru.

What did I do wrong?
Whats the correct way? TIA

 

[urumomo]

I've never used the Vallejo translucent

This stuff if Fantastic !
Very easy to modulate .. good adhesion - nano color particles :



Uru

 

[LrdSatyr8]

One suggestion... I tend to mix my own transparent paint and found a very consistant way of doing so using Future and a Printer Ink Refill kit. It really doesn't take much ink at all... maybe a drop to 1oz of Future is all you need. To mix the colors it pretty simple too. Once mixed the color is very transparent and very uniform. Doesn't cost a fortune (seeing as I already had the Future and the ink so basically $0). And if you paint on several layers, the color darkens. The more layers, the darker it gets. Works great for tinting chrome as well (like the Alclad paints). Might be worth checking into.

 

[urumomo]

;D
I've been experimenting with exactly that , LrdSatyr8 ..

using it on the cockpit monitor for the Giraffe .

One thing to note ---- cure times for the future go up greatly as it is layered .
I've waited at least 8+ hours between generous placement of the Future .

Saturday morning , after the fifth coat had 'cured' 12+ hours , it was still mostly soft and returned to solution easily .
I found out the hard way when I smashed an ugly crater into it while cleaning off some errant acrylic paint with a tiny moist swab .
About freaked out ---- I've redone the thing 4 times already .
I was able to place additional Future and it diffused the wound ...... two tiny bubbles now : but I'm not starting over again ...

I also experimented adding TransTint , dye stain , but the inks DEFINITELY work better and you need only a super tiny amount of color added .

Cheers ,
Uru

 

[sunsanvil]

What did I do wrong?
Whats the correct way? TIA

You put on too much too quick.

To tint glass with the Vallejo transparents, start by thinning it generously, making sure you have a homogeneous mix. You want to barely "dust" the thing. First pass you should almost wonder if you got anything on at all. Then dry it (at a distance blow only air with your airbrush till it appears dry/no sheen), take a GOOD look and do another dusting, dry, repeat until you have the effect you want.

 

[Go Flight]

Thanks all for your advise.

What did I do wrong?
Whats the correct way? TIA

You put on too much too quick.

To tint glass with the Vallejo transparents, start by thinning it generously, making sure you have a homogeneous mix. You want to barely "dust" the thing. First pass you should almost wonder if you got anything on at all. Then dry it (at a distance blow only air with your airbrush till it appears dry/no sheen), take a GOOD look and do another dusting, dry, repeat until you have the effect you want.

Thanks for that. So I did two things wrong, b/c it looked thin, I didn't thin down the color at all. Damn.
I can't redo the plane the color is on. So I'll go to my spares box and get an old canopy to practice on for the next time. Thanks.

 

[sunsanvil]

Yea even though they are quite a bit thinner than the rest of the line, they are still rather heavily pigmented. More "translucent" than "transparent". Strait out of the bottle they work well for coloring gems on fantasy miniatures or for creating the nav lights on aircraft, but when it comes to tinting clear, the line between not enough and too much is so freakin fine that, as with most things, its best to build up several super fine coats than try for a one-shot.

If you haven't overcoated it yet I bet you can strip it really easy with some booze, or better yet Vallejo AB cleaner.

 

[Jurasikfrank]

Here's another technique for a guaranteed uniform tint. I've used it a few times in the past.

Ingrédients:
Future (enough so you can dip the canopy in)
Food coloring

Mix the food coloring with the future. Just a few drops will automatically change the future's color but still, be very generous with it. I usually eyeball it but my starting ratio is probably around 1:8-ish (1 part food coloring to 8 part future).
Mix properly until no swirls are visible.
You'll have a lot of bubbles on the surface that's ok. Just wait a couple minutes so they set on the side of your container.
Dip your canopy in, leave it in a few seconds, take it out using a good pair of tweezers and place it on a piece of paper towel to dry. Make sure you cover the canopy during the drying process to avoid dust.
Keep your mix! If you want it darker, had food coloring and start over.
If it's too dark, dip your canopy in plain old windew and you'll be back to bare plastic.

Good luck
Cheers

 

[LrdSatyr8]

I tried many different methods for tinting Future. Food coloring doesn't work properly. For one the drop is far to big and you end up never getting the color right because in order to compensate for the large drop from the container you have to mix alot more Future then you will ever need. I've tried some of the "transparent" paints out there but again, they were never to the color I wanted and were harder to get ahold of. Not many local hobbyshops carry the transparent colors which leaves online buying and personally I would rather hold something in my hand before I buy to see if it would be what I need then to pay for something, wait till it arrives and then find out well that won't work. So... the best thing I've discovered is that by using an available printer ink refill kit, I can mix pretty much any color I need, and when I say it doesn't take much it really doesn't. I filled an empty .5oz Testor's paint bottle with future and then dipped a needle in some printer ink. Didn't even need a drop... just the ink that coated the needle was enough to give me the proper tint for a transparent blue/red police bar light. I still have that very same stuff in my paint collection. And what was really amazing was that I was also able to use the black ink to make car window tint and the more layers you put on, the darker the tinting got but you could always see thru it! Great stuff... the ink just mixes so well with Future I can't recommend it enough!

 

[urumomo]

I definitely agree with that , LrdSatyr8 .

Uru

 

[MAHUI]

 

[urumomo]

Stellar .

But you used too much .

It's totally opaque .

 

[Jurasikfrank]

LrdSatyr8,

I've got to try this printer ink refill kit tip.

Just so we're on the same page, I would NOT recommend the mix of food coloring and future for airbrush applications. I use it only when using the "dipping" technique. Depending on the size of the canopy, usually, a large amount of future is required whether you plan on tinting or not.
What I personaly like about this technique is that most minor imperfections you may have on your canopy will dissapear and it gives a uniform finish and shine.

Anyway, works for me!

Cheers!

 

[LrdSatyr8]

Definitely show off your results bro when you get around to experimenting!