CANOPY TINTING

RIT dye Made a Bridi Killer Chaos with a blue canopy. Did it half at a time in a gallon jar. mk

I have not done it in ages, but Rit was always my favorite. I will never forget when they changed formulas and went cheap. The original formula for Rit Black used the expensive indian black dye and produced a smokey grey canopy. The new cheap formula used a blue base and the black Ritz then produced a blue tint. Never did find another cloth die that would produce a smoke grey and gave up on it.

Bob Ruth AMA 720565

All methods should be tested on scrap of the excess portion of a canopy that you would trim off before installing it. It is far better to see bad results on a scrap rather than pay for another canopy.

Although I never used it on an R/C canopy, I have used future floor wax or clear coat mixed with indian black ink to get a smokey tint canopy on plastic scale models with good results with an airbrush. The vacuform canopies on vacuform scale kits are similar to those on R/C planes. However I am not certain that this would at some point start to flake off an R/C canopy. An R/C canopy tends to get more weather, sun and flex exposer than a scale model on a shelf.

I know that there are "tinting paints" these days for scale plastic model canopies & windows. Seen them in the hobby shop, so I would assume that someone makes similar products for R/C.

Bob Ruth AMA 720565

Rit dye. Used it for years with good results each and every time. Just don't try to dye in one dunking. In and out until you get the desired affect. It's also good to do it in a brightly lit area as you may otherwise think it's darker than it really is.

Ken Day