Razor Wing canopy

I am working with Les Bursley of “Awesome Paint Job”. He has started painting on my Razor wings (RW). He came up with this great airbrush pattern that he first revealed on my Talos/Cronous engine. We decided that would be a prominent theme on all of the vehicles. The model is still a WIP. The primary color scheme will be an icy blue. We are debating whether the full canopy should go onto this model or should the half canopy be used. Here are some pictures of his progress. Please give me your feedback. Thanks





Talos pic for vehicle comparison.

Full canopy - its a super sonic plane!!!

From the fluff point of view that makes sense. I am more concerned about the overall look of the model itself. Thanks for the input. BTW love your podcast.

Full. The open canopy would chop up and interrupt the flowing lines of the hull taking away from the "supersonic" look. IMHO I think that it would draw attention to the pilot and take it away from the cool airbrushed effect at tail section.

I am leaning towards the full canopy, but the idea of being able to see the details of cockpit and the pilot is something that I like to see in vehicles. Les was talking about using a wash that will allow the Pilot and other details to be seen.

Full canopy looks better. I put one each way on my 2 razorwings. First thing I heard when someone saw the 1/2 canopy, "how did you break the canopy?". I had to explain it's suppose to be that way.

Really I only see using the half canopy on the Venom. You can still see the detail of the cockpit and pilot with the full canopy you use have to keep it clear.

Another vote for full canopy - the sleek jet lines are served better, also you can still see all the detail inside and usually people are excited when they peer through the canopy and see the detail.

Cailos wrote:

Really I only see using the half canopy on the Venom. You can still see the detail of the cockpit and pilot with the full canopy you use have to keep it clear.

Is that for the appearance of the model or due to one being a transport and the other a super sonic fighter?


Thanks for your input.

Thor665 wrote:

Another vote for full canopy - the sleek jet lines are served better, also you can still see all the detail inside and usually people are excited when they peer through the canopy and see the detail.

Good point. I do like peeking in to see if the modeler went the full distance with the details. I always love to see Rhinos that have full detail on the inside of the cargo bay area.
You guys got me swaying toward full canopy. Keep the comments coming.

lowkeyy wrote:

Cailos wrote:

Really I only see using the half canopy on the Venom. You can still see the detail of the cockpit and pilot with the full canopy you use have to keep it clear.

Is that for the appearance of the model or due to one being a transport and the other a super sonic fighter?


Thanks for your input.

Its really just fluff reasons and I have looked at both on my Razorwing and the half canopy looks weird.

+1 to everyone opinion

And Gork forbid, don't do THAT, unless it's well executed or isn't "glass".

Local_Ork wrote:

+1 to everyone opinion

And Gork forbid, don't do THAT, unless it's well executed or isn't "glass".

Wow. That’s pretty sad.

If I do use a full canopy, I am going to have it done with a contrast color wash that keeps the full canopy’s transparency. Les believes that the pilot would be more visible is it was kept a gradient scheme so that the full canopy color would pick up the highlights. A fully painted pilot would lose it’s details under a full canopy. What do you guys think?

lowkeyy wrote:

Local_Ork wrote:

+1 to everyone opinion

And Gork forbid, don't do THAT, unless it's well executed or isn't "glass".

Wow. That’s pretty sad.

If I do use a full canopy, I am going to have it done with a contrast color wash that keeps the full canopy’s transparency. Les believes that the pilot would be more visible is it was kept a gradient scheme so that the full canopy color would pick up the highlights. A fully painted pilot would lose it’s details under a full canopy. What do you guys think?

Yes it would. But I paint every one of my canopies. But I don't put the pilots in it lol.

[quote="Cailos"]

lowkeyy wrote:

Local_Ork wrote:

+1 to everyone opinion

And Gork forbid, don't do THAT, unless it's well executed or isn't "glass".

Yes it would. But I paint every one of my canopies. But I don't put the pilots in it lol.

I did not know we could use the “Machine Spirit”

[quote="lowkeyy"]

Cailos wrote:

lowkeyy wrote:

Local_Ork wrote:

+1 to everyone opinion

And Gork forbid, don't do THAT, unless it's well executed or isn't "glass".

Yes it would. But I paint every one of my canopies. But I don't put the pilots in it lol.

I did not know we could use the “Machine Spirit”

Well no reason to use the bitz for the guy if you are going to paint the canopy.

No, I understand what you are saying. We were thinking along the lines of putting a transparent tent on the full canopy for the Razor Wing.

lowkeyy wrote:

No, I understand what you are saying. We were thinking along the lines of putting a transparent tent on the full canopy for the Razor Wing.

I know. I was saying that is a good way to go and was just saying what I do with my canopies.

I have only put half-canopies so far on both my Venoms and my Razorwing, and I will do so on my Voidraven too. Perhaps they are supersonic, at least some of the time, but the idea of an open canopy with the wind howling through and the ability to stick your arm out and fire your pistol (if it doesn't get snapped by the windstream) just fits better with my view of the fluff about DE in general and their pilots in particular, that they are absolutely nuts!

Consider their descriptions:

Quote :

..... for each of their [Razorwing] pilots was once a member of the Reaver elite, ....

and

Quote :

... a Voidraven bomber's pilot is a veteran of the high-speed death races that girdle the spires

and

Quote :

... the Razorwing Jetfighter, whose pilots rejoice in the earsplitting crack-boom of its passage, ...

That all screams open canopy to me.

I always keep my canopies clear apart from the frames and gunsights so that you can see what's inside, which I always paint in detail. I have also considered lightig up the inside of the cockpits.

The only different approach I would ever consider is a very light gold tint as on modern day, real jetfighters. I have seen some models with this and it looks great, if done right.

I'd base my decision off of what he is using for the wash, and if he has any examples to show you.

I know the Tamiya Clear works absolutely amazing for this. A local Eldar player uses it for his models, and it's my plan for my razorwing. I'd definitely go with the full canopy though, I dry fit the half canopy, it just looked too bi-plane instead of fighter jet.

The Razorwing isn't open topped, is it?

Not as far as rules go.

Ok, so talked to Les. He agreed with the majority of you that posted. We tried the full canopy first. Originally we were thinking of a contrast color, but found the purple wash had a better feel to the model. Les used a gold accent line to get the contrast we had talked about earlier. Les added a nice weathering touch to the engines to show that it’s in use. Please let me know what you think.

Full canopy vote here.


When I painted my Venom ones, what I found worked really well was giving the glass a coat of floor polish (I use Future Klear) with a drop of black paint in it. Gives it a lovely shine with a hint of tinting around the edges.

SirTainly wrote:

Full canopy vote here.


When I painted my Venom ones, what I found worked really well was giving the glass a coat of floor polish (I use Future Klear) with a drop of black paint in it. Gives it a lovely shine with a hint of tinting around the edges.

That’s interesting. The floor polish was safe on the plastic? That sounds like a very economic way to create a clear coat wash.