Painting Canopies with Candy Color

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FatBoy

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I tried a new technique (new to me, anyway) for finishing canopies on molded nose cones. The one below is on an Estes Xarconian Cruiser. After painting the entire rocket I masked off everything on the nose cone except the canopy, then I sprayed the following with an airbrush:


  1. Auto Air Aluminum Base to give it a nice bright and shiny base coat.
  2. Auto Air Transparent Black just along the edges to give it some depth.
  3. Auto Air Candy Pigment Brite Blue - just a few even light coats.
  4. Auto Air 4030 Intercoat as a semigloss clear coat.

Candy colors need to go on in very thin coats and they need to be even. If the coats are blotchy you will never be able to fix them because the candy paints are so transparent. Since it has a clear coat I might try polishing it later to get even more shine, but it already looks fairly shiny since the rest of the rocket has a flat coat.

This was my first use of candy colors, but they are so brilliant I will try them on an entire rocket soon. Who else has worked with candy colors?
 

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Great Job;
Excellant looking candy canopy.
Just so you know; It is possilbe to do much the same technique using Testors Rattle Can Candy colors. Particularly Candy Apple Red, Transparent Candy Green and Trans. Blue.
 
Not a rocket. This was shot using PPG Radiance series Orange Glow over metallic aluminum base coat and cleared with 2021. Looks completely different in the photo than it does in person.


IMG_1960.jpg
 
@FatBoy,

Great post. I'm getting ready to do a build where I will need to use these candy color acrylic paints. My build will have a white base coat then on top of it flex red... think blood spots... and then gradually build up darker color towards the back of the rocket shading from white at the nose tip to completely black at the back end.

I have some candy colors but am not experienced at using them for effect. Your canopy is an inspiration. I will also need to check out the intercoat paints you noted.

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk
 
Marc.... Post pictures once your project is done. It sounds interesting.

From what I have learned about Intercoat is that it is needed so that colors (especially candy) don't bleed through if you put other colors on top.
 
I've used transparent colors on the canopies of my RC gliders which turned out great. Just spray the interior of the canopy.
 
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