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Painting on the inside of the clear plastic will keep the glossiness. You can try inking the inside, though paints are by essence opaque pigment and will decrease the transparency of the plastic. I tried using ink on the inside of a Falcon canopy and it pooled funny and was uneven. Oh and stripping the paint off will cause the clear plastic to become kind of foggy. Just saying from experience though YMMV.
You could try using window tinting film, though I'm fairly certain at the scale of a 40k cockpit it would be almost opaque as not enough light would get through it in addition to being impractically expensive and a mess to do.
Now I kind of want to try just to see the results...
If you want to tint the glass there are a few options
Remember to apply the paints to the inside of the "glass" so you get the right effect.
1 Tamiya and Gunze Sanyo make an assortment of "clear" coats, I would recommend using Smoke or Green.
2 Go to a craft store and you will find "stained glass" paints, just like above but not as easily applied and very hard to airbrush.
Now for the mirror look, if you do this the cockpits will be totally obscured as you will be putting opaque colors on the inside of the canopy. First mask off the out side of the glass, make sure it is totally covered. Apply the first color, make sure it is the clear coat of your choice. Wait for the color coat drys overnight. Apply a coat of Mithril sivler or a similar type and let that dry. To make the silver brighter use white paint over it. When you are done the glass should be like this looking in from the outside...
1 Glass
2 Clear color
3 Silver
4 White (optional)
Some real life aircraft like the S-3, EA-6B and the F-117 had a thin layer of gold applied to their canopies to lower their Infra Red signature. To model this use a clear orange backed with gold paint.
Just remember to test these steps on a throw away piece of clear plastic like that of a blister pack so you know what everything will look like when you are done. Also, don't use spray paint for the silver or gold as it may eat the clear coat.
Naval Aviation Ordnance,
Specialists in Urban Renewal,Landscaping and Population Control
Every time a deployed AO does his job, a Terrorist dies.
On my mates falcons we sprayed it black then wiped it with our fingers, left a really nice tint effect on the canopies, obviously you have to be quick or youre screwed (one didnt go so well)
