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I have been looking around the past few days and am impressed by the workmanship on a lot of these models. I went to Sprue bros and was looking at all their stuff and saw the Eduard masks but the picture didn't tell me anything. What exactly are the masks for?

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G'Day Billabob. Eduard usually sells cockpit canopy masks. They are reusable vinyl masks for covering only the clear part of an aircraft's canopy. This way you can spray/paint the canopy without having to cut and position tape.

I don't use them myself. I lay thin strips of coloured tape over the canopy's frames, mask with clear tape, slice through the clear against the coloured, then remove the clear & coloured to expose the frames. Paint and go.

George, out....................

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Thanks George!

That makes sense. I was hoping it was more than that. More like material so you can make your own masks for painting designs that don't come in decals.

I'm planning on building an A-7E and painting it in the color scheme of the squadron I was in, in the late 70's. I have found decals for them but not from the cruise I was on.

Alan

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Eduard usually sells cockpit canopy masks. They are reusable vinyl masks for covering only the clear part of an aircraft's canopy.

Actually all of their masks are now made from Tamiya tape and are not reusable. They are a great help in speeding along the canopy painting process.

Cheers,

John

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Has anyone used these masks before? Is the cost of buying one of these masks justifiable with the time saved cutting pieces of tape? In both cases, it seems that one still has to position the mask or pieces of tape correctly to achieve the correct masking.

Am I missing the point of these masks?

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The earlier masks were vinyl but the later masks are laser cut "kabuki" type or tamiya tape to fit the clear sections of the canopy, leaving the frames "free" to be painted. You can use Tamiya tape for simple straight line canopies but large glass houses or canopies with curved areas are where they are a boon to modelling kind. They are simple to use and if used carefully can be re-used a couple of times. You can even use the entire sheet less the actual cut outs to make replicas using Tamiya tape. Tamiya include the material in their kits but you must cut it out yourself. Am I a fan of Eduard masks? Yes I think I am!!! :whistle:

Regards

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Are Eduard masks accurate? Do they only cover the areas that they are supposed to covered? Are there instances of the masks covering too little or too much over the frame?

If you purchase the masks designed for the brand of kit you have, there are generally no problems. Using a mask designed for a Hasegawa kit on a Tamiya kit may lead to some problems. In my experience they are 99.9% accurate. You may have to occasionally carefully tweak a corner here or there to ensure a correct fit but normally any problems are "operator error'.

Regards

Edited by Kahunaminor
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Yo Billabob, You got some right on answers above. Welcome to ARC. Just remember this bro: This is not a beat up on you, but there is no such thing as a stupid question. We are all in this together. It's a fun hobby and we want to keep it that way. Don't ever feel bad or hold back about ANYTHING. Again, welcome to ARC, and keep those questions a comin'!

Good luck on all you future endeavors.

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Thanks for the welcome Balls!

I used to build warbird models when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Nothing near as good as anything here. Then I went into the Navy and worked on A-7s and other Navy birds over a 5 yr period then life took me on a different route. I was still interested in planes, went to airshows and whatnot but never considered building a model again until a month ago. We went into a hobby shop and I saw the Trumpeter 1/32 A-7E and I started thinking if I wanted to get it.

I googled the kit and it led me to the forums here and I've been reading all I can. I'm going to start with something smaller but hopefully I will do good on that then I'll tackle the trumpy I hope with a custom tail paint job.

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Has anyone used these masks before? Is the cost of buying one of these masks justifiable with the time saved cutting pieces of tape? In both cases, it seems that one still has to position the mask or pieces of tape correctly to achieve the correct masking.

Am I missing the point of these masks?

I used to think they were a luxury, and sat there cutting little bits of tape whilst smugly thinking "Some modellers can be persuaded to pay for anything." Then I tried a set - instant conversion of the unbeliever! I use them if I can on anything with more than a few frames, examples being P-40, Ju-87, Lancaster. I wouldn't bother for an F-16 or a P-51D, but where there are more than a few frames I do think the time and effort saved more than compensates for the cost. Fit in my experience is near perfect, provided you use them on the recommended kit. In a perfect world, of course, all kits of the same subject would have exactly the same dimensions and shapes, but we all know that's not so!

Cheers,

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I used to think they were a luxury, and sat there cutting little bits of tape whilst smugly thinking "Some modellers can be persuaded to pay for anything." Then I tried a set - instant conversion of the unbeliever! I use them if I can on anything with more than a few frames, examples being P-40, Ju-87, Lancaster. I wouldn't bother for an F-16 or a P-51D, but where there are more than a few frames I do think the time and effort saved more than compensates for the cost. Fit in my experience is near perfect, provided you use them on the recommended kit. In a perfect world, of course, all kits of the same subject would have exactly the same dimensions and shapes, but we all know that's not so!

Cheers,

The first set that I ever used was on Williams Brothers 1/72 scale C-46 Commando. There are 12 separate frames in the cockpit of that animal that need to be masked. I'm with you. Those masks are no luxury, they are a HUGE time saver, and I'm sure that your time is as valuable to you as mine is to me. I have a 1/48 scale TBM Avenger coming up, and I'll gladly shell out some $$ to mask that puppy!

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