Canopy Tint on F-14A and F-4J

[RAIN]

I was wondering if all (or most) early F-14As and F-4Js had the front/centre part of their canopies tinted. It appears as though it's a yes from some pictures I see. Also, what is the predominant colour of the tint - light green or blue? Or is it different for both jets?

I was going to make a mixture of future with food colouring for the tints. What do you think/recommend?

[Jay Chladek]

I just match by eye as it seems to be greenish at some angles and blue at others. The way I did my F-14 canopy was to mask the inside area and mixed blue and green Tamiya tints and misted on those with my airbrush. It worked. And if the finish is grainly, you won't really notice once you install as the outside of the canopy is still shiny because you tinted the inside.

[tobiK]

As far as it is for the F-4: there's no tint! What you see is the reflexion of (sun)light from the HUD in the canopy. Just ask a guy taking seat in a phantom (well, I did!).

[Browning]

For the F-14A (haven't tried an F-4J yet), I use this three-stepper:

1. seal the canopy in Future

2. mask and mist some Alclad "Armored Glass" on the outside

3. polish with Tamiya Polishing compound. Even if the laquer is a a bit textured, the polishing compound evens everything out and gives the canopy a good shine again.

Inversely, if you want to keep the future shine on the outside, mist/mask/polish on the inside.

You can then treat the canopy to the normal masking/frame painting technique from here.

edit: I should mention that if you mess up at any point, alcohol will remove everything since your base coat is Future :D

Edited February 26, 2012 by Browning

[Jennings]

As noted, neither a/c has the windscreen tinted. It's simply a refraction phenomenon when looking at it from certain angles. The glass was laminated, causing that effect. Just like you see green when you look at the edge of a piece of thick glass.

[phasephantomphixer]

The forward windscreen unlike the two curved side windows is Armored and laminated Glass approx. 1 inch thick. The look of color all depends on light, and angle.

Because it is different than the rest of the windows, I sometimes add some tint. For WWII I have replaced kit part with thicker hard (better surface flat reflectance) plastic.

[Otto]

The forward windscreen unlike the two curved side windows is Armored and laminated Glass approx. 1 inch thick. The look of color all depends on light, and angle.

Because it is different than the rest of the windows, I sometimes add some tint. For WWII I have replaced kit part with thicker hard (better surface flat reflectance) plastic.

That is exactly what our squadron F-4Js were. It is just a natural tint evolved from not one but two inches of about 16 laminations of armored glass.

[11bee]

Be careful if you choose to tint this. I've seen it waaay over done on some models. As noted, it typically is clear or if from an angle, a very, very light greenish tint. I usually just leave the kit part alone.

[Scott R Wilson]

That is exactly what our squadron F-4Js were. It is just a natural tint evolved from not one but two inches of about 16 laminations of armored glass.

AFAIK, all F-4s past the F-4A used exactly the same windscreens and canopies until the one piece windscreen was retrofitted to a few F-4s just before retirement from the USAF. I think the center windscreen looks blue-green in so many photos not only because of the thickness of the glass, but because cameras seem more sensitive to blue than the human eye. To illustrate, under flourescent lights things seem stark white, but a camera will see it with a blue-green tint.

I do know the center windscreens rarely ever appeared tinted to my eyes when I worked on F-4Cs and Es for five years. Just in certain lighting conditions did it ever appear to have any color to it, usually on a bright but hazy day. But at the same time, most of my photos taken with Kodachrome in which the center windscreen is visible show it as greenish even on bright clear-sky days in which the windscreen appeared perfectly clear in real life.

I'm with the guys who don't tint it at all on their models. And if you decide to tint your model's windscreen, it should be VERY subtle.

Here's a few photos of some F-4Ds taken by Mark D. Jones, a former F-4 WSO (posted with his permission) that show the center windscreen straight on in good lighting conditions. As you can see there is no sign of tinting:

[Otto]

You guys got one piece fore-ends? Must have been nice. The last F-4Ss we got were still the same-ol.

[tobiK]

When it comes to F-16, then it is different. There are many different kinds of tinting (or no tinting), depends on the aircraft. Even swiss Hornets...last time I ve seen one, it had a golden /orange hue. The pilot told me they got new canopies with some special new habbits I don t remember now. For tinting I usually use clear orange or smoke and spray on the insideafter polishing (I use such a stuff for polishing cellphone displays and cotton tabs). The outside will be polished and sealed with future.

[Scott R Wilson]

You guys got one piece fore-ends? Must have been nice. The last F-4Ss we got were still the same-ol.

Yeah, they spent all kinds of money developing the one-piece windscreen, then just as it was being retrofitted they decided to retire the fleet. Only a few jets ever got it, I don't recall the number but I think it was something like a dozen or so, all of them F-4Es, F-4Gs, and RF-4Cs. At least one F-4E transferred to Greece had it, but they didn't retrofit the rest of their jets either.

Here's an F-4G that got it:

And an F-4E, photo by Kevin Jackson:

Edited February 26, 2012 by Scott R Wilson