How do you paint windows?

[Maple-leaf-Warrior]

I just recieved my order for some Apache's and Chinooks, and I have them all painted up exept for the windows. I'm split on leaving them black, and painting them blue.

Have any ideas or how you do them?


Thanks,

Russ

[Mk 1]

The technique I have settled on, fairly recently, is ... both black and blue.

I paint the whole cockpit area black first. Then I paint in the canopy bracing structure. Then I touch each pain of the canopy with a small brush dipped in a shiny metalic blue (I use Tamiya Acrylic Metalic Blue).

The fact that the pains are first painted black, but then notably lighter in the center, has several interesting effects. It looks like reflected light. It makes each pain of the canopy more visible. It also makes the canopy bracing structure more visible (by outlining it in black). And interestingly it seems to lessen the visual impact of any imperfections in painting the canopy bracing.

Here is an example -- my Brand-X Romanian SR-79jr bombers:



Can't claim it was my idea. Got it from others here on the forum. But I like the results much better than my prior approach, which was painting the canopy glass only in the metallic blue, as shown on my Brand-X Italian BR-20 bombers:



Hope that helps.

[Gompel]

Although this is a personal preference, here are my thoughts:
look for the real thing and observe what you see. If you look through a window from inside to outside, the window appears to be very bright. If you're outdoors and look through a window, all things inside the space look rather dark. So, object inside a confined space are always dark compared to outdoor objects (unless the room is lighted).
So why do people paint blue windows? I sometimes wonder, although I understand why. It is the reflection of the blue sky that can make windows blue (like water). This is because of the reflection of the am-bient light (not direct sunlight). Glass does only mirror light beams at certain angles (like when you can't see who's inside the car because of the reflected light). But that is hardly ever the case for all the windows at the same time (of that same car) and most of the time it is not blue, but white/bright grey.

Some examples I found in a quick search:

Lots of reflection in the above image. Notice the rather cloudy sky.


The typical blue reflection of the sky.

Notice the angles of the windows in the above two images. The viewer (camera) is below the heli. If you would look to the heli top-down, at least the side windows are unlikely to be blue, as they would reflect the ground instead of the sky.

Hard to find pictures of viewpoint above the heli:




Problem you have with the see-through-windows:



I prefer black (or dark grey) painted windows, finished with a gloss varnish. Some time ago I saw some very nicely done Me109s on this forum (painted by Intobattle, but pics are gone now). The windows were dark grey, with a black inkwash. So the corners of the windows were darker than the middle part. That gave it a nice touch and I use the same technique nowadays.

Observing the 'real world', it's the best advice you have
Patrick

[voltigeur]

On a pewter model you have to take some artistic license anyway.

I use a process similar to MK1's

I use Testor's Metallic silver to paint the panes of glass. Then use Tamaya's clear blue over the silver.

Depending on the light I soome times do this technique with an "aged Metal" base. That is good for the stained glass on churches and building where the sunlight would not be so direct.

Try different things and choose what is appealing to you. I have seen great models painted black, light blue and the methods described here.

Again your allowed artistic license on this part.

[evildrsmith]

I use much the same process as Mk1 as well: Black undercoat, but than I use a metallic gunmetal grey (North west Europe - the skies are often grey and it rains a lot...)

[opsctr]

Looking at glass from the same distance the scale of the model indicates usually produces very high gloss black or dark gray mirroring that can pick up reflected adjacent color or background color.


In the picture above you can see the high gloss black reflective color of the vehicles parked along the fence and the light reflection on the pink car and the white truck cab on the right. A similar truck windscreen reflects black with a bit of white due to the interior of the truck cab in the truck on the far left. Both the trucks on the far left and right have clear plastic windscreens (Viking "Z" scale models) that act as glass does in the reflected light of the flash unit on the camera.


Note the black to gray of the windows and windscreen that depends on the light source. Windows out of the direct sun appear black and those in the sun appear gray but all are very high gloss.


Note in the picture above how the very high gloss black windows reflect light in almost the same manner as the windows in the CH-53 above and how that reflection makes the ambulance windows look especially real even though the vehicle is solid.

The building windows had not been glossed at the time of this photo or you would have seen the same sort of reflective properties.

If you look at parked cars from above at a distance (seen from the same distance the scale you are working with indicates) most of the glass looks black... Will

[6mmwargaming]

I experimenting with removing the canopies and making the interiors on some aircraft a while back.

http://6mmfan.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/ ... -canopies/

I managed to vaccum mold a canopy on a Typhoon and a Su15 as an experiment. Then i drilled out the interior and made a pilot and seat from green stuff. They came out well but I never finished painting them.

I never carried on with this as its too much work especailly has I have over 500 aircraft in my collection.

Cheers
kieran