Hi guys!
Great site, I learn a lot here. I just picked up dragon's M48A3 mod b kit, looks great cant wait to build, but I was looking at the clear parts and am trying to figure out how to paint them, especially the cupola periscopes and the dome thingmies on the turret sides. How would you guys do them? I am thinking a lot of pre painting of parts and sub assemblies? I am interested in hearing what the "paint the model after its built crowd" says about the clear parts
thanks, Maynard

I take the easy shortcut. I use a green sharpie to color the clear parts like armored glass. I then cover them with poster tac for painting.

thanks for reply, I like sharpie idea but I was referring to painting around the window. building it first and trying to mask, or painting it first, inserting the glass pieces then assembling. this has a lot of glass window to it! oh and what is poster tac?

Poster tac is that gummy stuff you use to hang posters instead of tape. It can be used as a paint mask because it doesn't permanently stick to surfaces and can be molded around odd shapes.

To me, the clear periscopes are a gimmick. On actual tanks and APCs, they are not clear, but dark with a green (or red) tint. I paint over them with the rest of the model basecoat color. I then paint the periscopes black, then a couple coats of clear green (if older, pre anti-laser coating; clear red for anti-laser coating). Once dry, I put on a couple coats of clear gloss. This gives depth and the appropriate color for thick, armored glass (which has a green tint) or anti-laser coated red glass.

I'd rather pose the question back: which is more convenient, easier for you to do? I can suggest the former because that is what I'd typically do, but it makes no sense if it doesn't work for you.

For poster tac there are lots of brands commercially available. What I can recommend is Blu Tack -- it works well and I've had no issues with it.

Hi;

IMHO for A M48; paint the Back side Gloss Black, and then paint the front side Tamiya Clear Green. All of the hints will look good, also you can use A scrap part of the clear sprue and test which one you like the most.

GOOD LUCK; MIKE.

Thanks guys, Mike I am thinking something along your lines, that should look nice. I will look for poster tac, sounds very useful. I will post up when I finish if it turns out well.

I always paint the periscopes chrome and then use clear paint on top.Makes the color stand out more.

Tom

M48A3 vision blocks are clear. They are not tinted. They were from before the days of protective coatings.

Right, they were not tinted, however, they do appear to have a green tint due to the multiple layers of thick glass.

I follow Gino's method, paint and layer with clear coats. Don't like the chromey looking decals and hate clear ones.

Hi;

For A M48 used in Vietnam, the method I suggested would be the most accurate. If you choose to follow this method; First expirement on a scrap of clear sprue, and don't use the Clear Green directly from the Bottle, use water to thin the Green and test the Color on the clear sprue. As the others have said the Glass was Not A Coated Optic !!
Painting the Back Side Black will give it depth, and A very Thin Clear Green should look accurate. Remember; Expirement ! To choose which amount of Green looks the Best.

GOOD LUCK; MIKE.

I am back , yes I am a slowww modeler.
I have given up trying to put the pics in my post. But I do have WIP pics of my build showing how the windows, vision ports and headlights turned out in the 'my photos' section.

I did pretty much as Mike outlined for the ports and cupola glass. I painted the back side of the ports black, left the bottom clear, sprayed thin transparent green on the front, then assembled.
headlight pieces got dots of silver and black on their back surfaces, the infra red lenses got a thin coat of transparent red on the front, dried 24 hrs, assembled, masked with liquid mask (neat stuff!) and painted.
it doesn't show real well in the pics but In the right light you can see the red tint nicely and looks pretty convincing.
So how did I do?