Hey all,
I havent had the chance to work with newer Dragon models yet until now. I was about to put together the tank commanders cupola/hatch and I was wondering about the "clear" pieces used as the windows to look out of.
How do you end up putting them in and not painting them? Do you put them in after the hatch is painted or do you tape them off? I dont want to build this thing until I know for sure.
If anyone knows what Im talking about please give me some advice, if not then I can post some pictures of what Im talking about.

Thanks guys, I appreciate any help.

-Jesse

I had EXACTLY the same question as you!! See my thread below. I think what I've decided to do to address this is to use liquid mask. I've not yet actually done it (that is, the painting part), but I have tested the process of painting on the masks, and then pulling them off, and it works fine (I am using Micro Mask). I also used this product on the tail lights (on a Tamiya British Challenger 2) where I had pre-painted the clear parts in Tamiya clear red and orange paint. The mask goes on fine, and pulls off just fine as well, without pulling any of the pain off with it. Good luck!

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/189325&page=1

I paint the body of the periscope silver or white before installing, and then mask the clear lens of the periscope before final painting. If the interior is visible, I paint the body of the periscope black. Any touch-up that is needed after final painting can be done carefully.

The easiest way that I know of,and I've done it on a number of Shermans is to paint the cupola, then install the windows (actually I guess that they are vision blocks. Then attach the cupola to the turret. That works with their Shermans anyway)

The vision blocks were actually blue colored glass. So paint the inside surface of the clear part blue and then mask off the exterior surface before painting the model.