Off topic..... help with aircraft weathering

Hi all,

Sorry to post an off topic question like this, but it is model related. I know that there are some here who are/were aircraft modelers so a little help with my first would be great.

The kit I have is the Tamiya Corsair F4U-1A

I have painted the base colours with some XF1 preshading, and today I will aply the decals. What I want to know is what order to do the weathering in, and what colours to use for a carrier based aircraft from WW2.
Also if anyone knows some good aircraft modeling sites like this one.

Thanks,

Fooesboy

Good aircraft sites:
www.hyperscale.com
www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

I tend to weather aircraft the same way I weather cars- a wash of artists oils thinned with turpentine (raw umber is my most used color for this), and/or ground pastel chalk dust. For a carrier based a/c, remember to add some white and off white pastel chalk dust to simulate salt depost buildup.

Personally, I've never bothered to preshade panel lines before painting- always seems to me to be a silly, barely effective way to do what's so easily done with a wash- but there is no right or wrong way to go about weathering. Everyone you ask will tell you something a bit different.

What is the colour scheme you are using? This will detemine how to go about weathering. I would also suggest doing your weathering BEFORE you decal, as I learned by my mistake recently when weathering an F14 after decaling where there are clear areas of decal, it wont weather and will show as a lighter or darker patch on the finished kit depending on your colour scheme. With naval aircraft you can over do it, dispite what some 'experts' say so be carefull. If you are using the three tone blue/greynavy scheme them preshading is quite effective if you dont apply to much topcoat colour. PM or email me if I can be of further help with colours. :smile:

Thank you for the replies, especially the web address’s.

This is my first aircraft kit, a colleague of mine is into his model aircraft in a big way, so we are having a little comp, first we build an aircraft (the F4U-1) and then we will do a car (Sauber-Mercedes C9)........ I should do well with the car, but the aircraft is another story.

OK, so what have I done.........

I have chosen the F4U-1A "Big Hog" from the Jolly Rogers flight group. This has a 3 colour camouflage scheme of very light grey, light blue and navy blue. I primed the kit with the Alclad II primer, because it is very thin and I don’t want to loose all the fine detail with paint build up. Next I have pre-shaded the panel lines with very thin XF1. Then I decanted the Tamiya spray cans of AS8, AS19 and AS20, thinned them to a 2:1 ratio thinner to paint, sprayed at about 5psi (the lowest pressure I could get with out splutters) and slowly let the paint build up. The end result is very pleasing to the eye. I don't have good access to a digital camera, so if you want photos you will have to wait until next weekend.... sorry!


What I now need to do............

All the panel lines and exhaust / gun stains and general dirt and grime. This is where I need help in choosing the correct colours, types of paint (i.e. acrylic or enamel to go over the Tamiya AS spray cans) and the order to do it all in! Including the decals

you could go to the forums at www.finescale.com

they should be able to help you aswell...or you could look through the old threads there on weathering as there are plenty.

Your best bet for exhaust and gun staining is either Carrs pastels (can be expensive)or what I use is womens eye shadow, comes in all sorts of browns greys and blacks and can be had for peanuts at the cheap stores, apply with a brush after you have decaled and seal in with your topcoat matt/satin varnish finish.

Thanks Verminator,

I think I will give some pastels a go, looks like that is the VERY last detail to do.

But I guess what I realy want to know is how do I make the aircraft DIRTY, like it has been flowen to hell and back every day of the week except for Thursdays....... when it went twice! :evillol:

I want it to look like all the operational photos, realy beet up!