It occurred to me recently (steady), especially as I've taken up more serious attempts at weathering since joining Armorama,... that there seems to be a bit of a dilema....at least in my mind.

There are those who weather their models to the last speck of dirt and battle scar and yet strive to make the glass as clear and unsullied as possible.

Thinks in best bluebottle voice...if a plane is really battered and dirty wouldn't the glass also get a bit hazy and dirty too?
Even if a ground crew cleaned the glass regularily, a wipe with a cloth would leave residues of dirt and grime in all the corners and around the edges of the canopy frame.
I know the quest for perfectly clear glass is so the superb detail of the cockpit interior is more easily seen.

But purists may like a bit of grime on their glass.

Just a thought ...
Any views on this?

Cheers
Peter
:-)

Hmmm... I dunno about them but for me I do the natural weathering method. First I apply future on the canopy. After a while I use my finger and rub it to the glass so that it would look better. This removes most of the shine unevenly thus a battle scared look. Or sometimes, I don't use future at all :-)

Hi Peter. I agree totally, in fact when I painted my DUKW and Jeep for the D-Day build, I didn't mask the glass off at all as it would be covered in salt spray for real anyway (see my gallery).

Hi Shaun...
exactly!

I also have a theory about undersides of aircraft being generally dirtier than the uppers.
If any thing leaks, when the plane is on the ground... stationary, the fluids would pool due to gravity and stain the under surfaces at the escape points.
And even in flight gravity still plays...in that anything internal would find its way down before exiting, except were leaks exit directly into the airflow whether uppers or lowers
If a crew cleaned their aircraft, its harder to reach up to clean the undersides than say grab a ladder and brush or wash the uppers...and then the cleaning water would flow down leaving grimy reidues on the lower surfaces???
Again just thoughts and musings....I must be bored at work...lol.

Cheers
Peter


:-)

Peter, when I do windshields I usually leave the glass unmasked for the weathering. Since I normally use Polly S or inks for the weathering coats and flat coats, I simple use a Q-tip, (that's cotton bud... to yous guys), moisten with windex or windshield
(windscreen) washer fluid to simulate some dude using a rag to wipe the grime off.
I agree on the canopies observation also, simple a case of the weathering not matching the canopy. From my years on a carrier, I know the windshields and canopy were wiped down clean before launching, but they really never were crystal clear, unless they were new. Just an example of a really weathered bird, with a showroom finished canopy, actually not looking right, at least to my senile old mind.

I agree, especially on ground stuff. All glass ages etc, etc. Also when glass is polished there are swirls and other anomalies that show up when the sun hits it. Glass is never really crystal clear clean.
capnjock

You might have just put the aftermarket cockpit business out of busnesss :-) :-) . But I do agree, a fully weathered plane with a cristal clear canopy doesn't look right.

cheers
Henk

You might have just put the aftermarket cockpit business out of busnesss :-) :-) . But I do agree, a fully weathered plane with a cristal clear canopy doesn't look right.

cheers
Henk

Hi Henk...
at the rate I ruin vac canopies I think they'll stay in business a while longer :-) :-)

Or is this post a ploy for my battered canopy paint jobs to seem more acceptable...

Cheers
Peter
:-)

Life of a fighter pilot depends on how far he can see, so he needs a canopy as clean as can be.

It's very logical for glass to have imperfections. But would they appear in 1/48th or 1/72nd scale ?

Quality of glass also depends on quality of production.
WW2 US fighters had good quality glass, germany not so, and Japan even lower...

I would have to say that I would agree a light weathering may be applied. Not a lot, because that's going to be one of the first things that gets a cleaning, you need and engine, clear vision, and a weapon......
But yes, dirty AC and crystal clear glass - eehhh not ilkely.

As far as the bottom vs. the top - I'd say I'd agree on the wings, but the fusalage will get all over dirty from kicked up 'gunk' and stuff.

I agree with what you are sying Peter, but this is, to me, one of those things that, in model form, can be "missunderstood". If you were to weather cockpit glass it would simply look as if you "mucked up". This is only true of model aircraft, of course, ground vehicles should have weatherd glass. Another one of these type of details is "invasion stripes", most of them were applied in a hurry, the day before the landings and were quite crudely done. If however you were to appliy sloppy stripes it would just look awful in model form.
The modern RAF, at least, have a polishing system that irradicates all blemishes on cockpit glass. I use the same system on blemishes on my model canopies :-)
Mal

In my experience this is about as bad as it gets. Even the old warbird wrecks around the field are about the same, as you see here, unless they have experienced a fire, most can be polished back to clear. What you see here is mostly surface dirt and scratches, the one on the ground is broken but is still fairly transparent.


I have to agree with Mal, if you tried to do this to a model, the first thought someone would have is "he mucked it up".

BANG....there goes my excuse right out of the window...pun intended.

So I'll just have to do it properly from now on...

Cheers
Peter
:-)