Hi guys,

I am busy building my first model aircraft, a C-47 that I am building for my uncle (I only build 1/35 armor and vehicles).

I am building the C-47 as a South African Airforce 'Dakota' that South African paratroopers used to jump from in the 1980's. The plane needs to be painted in a green and brown camo scheme.

I have already built the interior and sprayed the interior. My problem is, how would I put the plane together to spray the exterior? I cant glue it as I need to put the windows in from the inside (after I have given a matt coat finish).

What is the best way to go about building from where I am?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

if you want the lengthwise seam to disappear properly you must close up and attend to filling and fairing the seam before painting. there is no avoiding masking each and every window by cutting little squares of high quality masking tape and carefully burnishing down the edges.
There was just a thread on here about masking windows on airplanes with some pretty good advice.
best luck, let us know how you get on.

Thanks JClapp, I think I will do just that.

Appreciate the help buddy.

If the windows are small enough you can leave the kit glazing out and use liquid glazing applied (carefully) after painting. I did this recently on a 1/72 Varsity and Heyford. An alternative method is to paint the window portions of the kit windows with Maskol and fit them. Finish the assembled and filled aircraft then remove the Maskol. Also fiddley. Did that on a Halifax. Ask 10 modellers for advice and you'll probably get 12 different answers

Thanks buddy,

I'll have a look for that maskol.

If you haven't found it, it is a Humbrol product, looks and feels like liquid latex

Hi Keigan,

You are bedeviled by this as so many of us are -- how to paint a multi-windowed airplane?

Here's what I did long ago with my Lockheed Hudson, and what I would do today if building a C-47. I will paint the camo on the exterior and then matt coat it. Then I will add the interior windows and assemble the model.

That's goofy -- what about the seams? What about the gloss coat for the decals? you may ask. Well, simple. Assemble the fuselage; then clean up the seams, then paint or repaint the seams as modelers often have to do anyway! I know that I usually have a seam or two that needs touch-up after the paint goes on.

Then, mask the window belt against the gloss. Perhaps vary the mask slightly along different panel lines. After you gloss and apply the decals, you will re-matt it anyway. The result should be almost imperceptible, and if there is a slight variance, so what? After all, one of the techniques in vogue is different shading of panel lines and panels! Many modelers spend as much time shading and highlighting panels after painting, as they did painting the model in the first place.

I think it works well.

Thanks for that JPTRR,

I went ahead and built the interior, glued the windows on and taped the fuselage together.

I had already sprayed the exterior green, but wanted to give it another coat. I used Tamiya masking tape to cover the windows. When the paint was dry, I removed the tape. All the windows came off (but for three).

Looks like I have to break it down and start again....

Thanks for the advice. I will build another one after this. I usually build the same model twice at some point, just because I found that I always manage to improve on the areas that I messed up the first time round.

Will give your advice a shot on the next one for sure!

That's tough, and getting it apart again won't be easy. If the windows are small enough you can use liquid glazing, there are a number of makes on the market but none will cover a window bigger than about 1/4" round (or square). I used it for a 1/72 Varsity last year, It took a couple of attempts but as it is done after painting and assembly, that didn't matter, several failed first time, I just did them again. I think the stuff was Krystal Klear, dip cocktail stick in the bottle and get a good coating, put the stick in the window apeture and move round and round the rim until then as the stuff forms a film across the window withdraw the stick. Allow to dry. Most of the Heyford windows were done this way

Haven't got the Varsity pics to hand