Mike, I very much like the idea (suggested by a couple of others here at RCU as well) of thinking of the finished model as a canvas to be painted on. This is particularly apt with these early birds that were fabric covered. You've done a lot of the things I was actually thinking about doing but felt I didn't have the artistic skills to acoomplish at this time. Mine EIII is finished a little more conservatively. First the plain white areas (actually a mixtures of white, black, and raw umber) were masked off and spray painted with a detail gun. I just couldn't trust myself to get the lines straight. Next the outlines of the early-style Patee crosses were drawn on with a soft pencil (following thick card patterns I had printed out on the computer). These were then painted by hand both because I figure the original was also hand-painted and becasue masking would have been a nightmare. What all the basic markings were in place, I set about dirtying it up a bit. Using a very thin wash of the black I used on the crosses, I added rainstreaks on the fuselage and wings. I'd sort of slop the wash on over the ribs of the wings and then roughly wipe it down. Also I daubbed a slightly thicker wash is the area aft of the undercarriage to attempt to replicate the stains left from dirt repeatedly thown up on take-offs and landings. Finally after all the weathering, the aircraft ID and parts numbering on wings, fuse, and tail, were done with custom-printed water-slide decals. And then because it DID have to be fuel-proof I sprayed the whole things with MinWax Polycrylic.

There are a lot of things I had read about and thought about doing but didn't trust myself to do on this model. For example, I experimented with the idea of pre-shadowing to highlight the structure but my results didn't look realistic to me. Also I tried various techniques to create realistic looking oil stains on the solartex but with little success. Ideally this oil should bleed from the inside out and that's impossible with the Solartex because of it's rubberized surface. Your oil stains look quite nice.

Anyway, this being my first scale RC model and the first model I've EVER attempted to weather, I think I did an OK job and learned a ton. Maybe I'll play around with the finish on the ARF I've just ordered -- I somehow can't stand the thought of a shiny new plane! Thanks for all your input.