Estes Vesta Intruder #7312 Build, Part 14, Canopy Black

I wouldn't recommend outlining the canopies the way I did. In the end I didn't get great results. This post shows my first attempt at the canopy masking. You'd probably be better off masking with Tamiya tape or if you are steady with a brush, hand painting.

I couldn't see how to mask the four canopies on the tall nose cone. There are high areas with deep, defined edges. There are also tight, low areas without sharp edges.

I thought I would try a ultra fine point Sharpie outline like I had done before on the Saturn V and Saturn 1B vacu-form wraps. This gives you a definite black outline that is easier to mask when spraying the black fill on the inside of the Sharpie line.

No problems initially, the ultra fine point Sharpie easily followed in the canopy "rut".

It's much harder to outline the rounded top of the canopy.

I pretty much free-handed the curve joining up the outside lines with the round top.

The top of the narrower canopies were hard to outline.

I ended up using a small straightedge, here is the leftover centering ring card. Draw short lines adjusting the cardstock edge every 1/4" or so and continuing the line.

The ultra fine point line was widened in using a standard fine point Sharpie. You don't have to go very wide here. Just enough to help with the masking edge.

Again, you'd probably be better off using a flexible tape mask without the Sharpie outlines.