A Vibrant Canopy for the EF Cypher Heli
December 30, 2008
On a never-ending quest for high-visibility canopy designs, I came up with this bad boy. Unfortunately I over sanded the first coat of clear and broke through to the candy blue in a few spots :( You will have to excuse the poor cover ups. Luckily they aren't noticeable when in flight.
Step-by-step:
- Reinforced the edges of the canopy with some extra fiberglass.
- Filled the stock holes with microballons and flexible CA.
- Thoroughly sanded the canopy, then primed with sandable primer. Two coats.
- One coat of white paint.
- Drew the curves with a 4B pencil. Don't make the mistake I did: A mechanical pencil's lead is sharp and will spear into your nicely sanded and primed surface. Heart breaking...
- Washed the canopy with warm soap and water. No, this does not remove your drawing unless you scrub really hard.
- Shot the color coats: fluorescent yellow, fluorescent orange, fluorescent red, silver and candy blue.
- Masked off the entire canopy with some liquid mask. Let dry for a few hours in the sun.
- Used a Sharpie to draw the black outlines, then cut out the outlines with a fresh #11 blade.
- Shot the black, then peeled off the remaining mask.
When removing the liquid mask there will be a blue tint left behind. Its goes away after a few hours. You don't have to wait for it, it will still disappear if you paint or clear over it.
- Shot the first layer of clear.
- Let it cure for 24 hours, then sanded it. I over sanded and broke through the candy blue :(
- Fixed my mistake as best I could, then washed and applied a second coat of clear.
- Done.