Thought I would start a thread for tips on weathering, distressing, and other surface detailing for those who want that battle veteran appearance on their war birds, including ARFs, scratch builds, and kit builds. I'm new to the air brush, so I have some things to learn, but still work what I can with brushes, chalk, and masking tape. Here are some fluid leaks and wing crud on an F6F I did a couple years back. I now know I need more gloss on the oil leaks.

BTW, please feel free to contribute your tips and techniques with no fear of 'hijacking'. My thought was to have kind of a weathering/distressing central for all looking to make their war birds look more 'in action'. To many of us, shinny 'new' warbirds just don't look right.

No disrespect intended to all you factory fresh guys.

Here is an index for the contributions to this thread. Feel free to make suggestions for more departments if you think of any you would like. In each department you will find first the page number, and
then the post number. Like this..........3-79. I will keep adding to this index tool as we go along. Enjoy.

1 - THE GALLERY OF MODELED WARBIRDS IN SERVICE / ACTION:

A - US
1-5, 1-6, 1-11, 1-16, 2-28, 2-39, 2-50, 4-99, 5-103, 5-118, 6-135, 7-171, 8-184, 12-279, 12-285, 17-403, 22-526,

B - GERMAN
2-31, 2-39, 2-50, 3-72, 5-115, 5-121, 6-128, 6-135, 7-157, 15-357, 18-430

C - JAPANESE
2-28, 2-48

D - OTHER

2 - AIRFRAME PAINTING TECHNIQUES INCLUDING TOOLS, MATERIALS, AND SUPPLIES:
2-31, 3-55, 3-61, 3-74, 7-175, 8-178, 8-184, 10-247, 11-259, 12-279, 12-284, 12-285, 15-364, 18-430, 19-452, 19-453, 19-454

3 - PANEL LINES AND RIVETS:
2-44, 3-54, 3-55, 4-83, 4-84, 4-85, 4-86, 4-91, 4-92, 5-110, 6-129, 13-302, 13-308, 16-397, 17-404, 17-406, 17-407, 17-411, 17-414, 17-423, 18-430, 18-438, 19-469, 19-470, 20-486, 20-488, 22-547,

4 - DISTRESSING AND WEATHERING PAINTED SURFACES INCLUDING SHADING, CHIPPING, 'FIELD REPAIRS', AND MORE:
1-14, 1-15, 1-16, 2-26, 2-29, 2-31, 2-36, 2-40, 2-47, 2-48, 4-94, 5-107, 6-128, 6-138, 11-252, 11-253, 11-259, 11-260, 13-319, 13-325, 18-430, 19-464,

5 - DISTRESSING AND WEATHERING COVERED SURFACES INCLUDING SHADING, CHIPPING, 'FIELD REPAIRS', AND MORE:
1-19, 2-26, 2-29, 2-31, 2-36, 3-58, 4-98, 5-121, 6-126, 7-157, 8-189, 18-430, 19-464, 11-259,

6 - EXHAUST, GUN SMOKE, AND HEAT TRAILS:
1-23, 3-73, 6-142, 6-147, 7-152, 7-154, 13-316, 13-322, 16-378, 18-430

7 - WEATHERING LANDING GEAR:
10-248,

8 - MAKING OUR COCKPITS AND PILOTS LOOK MORE REALISTIC:
5-109, 5-118, 7-170, 8-176, 8-182, 8-183, 8-188, 9-202, 9-205, 9-209, 9-210, 9-212, 9-213, 9-216, 9-222, 11-259, 14-343, 14-344, 14-349, 15-356, 15-357, 15-365, 15-366, 16-382, 21-516, 21-519, 21-522, 21-525, 22-527, 22-530, 22-532, 22-534,

9 - NOMENCLATURE AND MARKINGS:
12-299, 12-288, 13-307, 13-320, 17-420, 17-421, 18-428, 18-438, 19-466,

10 - REAL ALUMINUM (FOIL) FINISHES:
1-21, 1-25, 3-59, 4-96, 7-162, 7-173, 11-265, 12-280, 13-301, 13-302 , 14-326, 16-377, 16-400, 17-420, 18-438, 18-441, 18-443, 18-445, 18-446, 18-448, 19-456, 19-457, 19-475, 20-478, 20-484, 20-495, 20-499,

11- GUNS AND ARMAMENT
21-503, 21-508, 21-509, 21-512,

12 - FULL SCALE INFO, PICTURES AND OTHER DOCUMENTATION
8-191, 10-239, 12-288, 14-330, 17-404, 17-421, 17-423, 22-529,

I will see if I canadd as you go along if you dont mind

Any tips or pictures are always appreciated. Thanks.

Another shot my F6F that I found.

Great topic. I would like to see as many weathered planes as you guys can post and hear other peoples techniques. When I first started in Warbirds I would buy and watch the videos of Topgun, Warbirds over Delaware ect. ect. Some guys would always say that these planes did not show heavy signs of weathering. Well I have to disagree. I have several WW2 books that go into great detail of these plane and the majority of the planes looked like they went to hell and back. The Navy planes looked old before they had their first sortie. The truth is, the ground crews just did not have time to keep that, just from the factory shine on them. I will admit, it is nice to see a great weathered plane , and sometimes we might go too far but this is how we all learn. Trial and error. I will post pics of some of my planes later, since we are in the middle of a nasty storm with 60 MPH winds , and my Sat dish is going eveywhere but up into space. I hope that I am not highjacking your thread. Take Care , Capt Winters

some of my airbrushing....the 2 hellcats are with newowners. All painted with model masters and a double action paint brush

Not at all Capt. Winters. Welcome, and well said. This is just the thing I thought many of us would enjoy, benefit from, and proudly share.

I too prefer the realistic in-service and action look to my fighters and such. Although they may have 'shinned' fresh out of the factory, as you note, it didn't last long. I, for the most part, also prefer not to model the factory fresh look most full scale restorations have, even though they use war time subjects for their identity. Just does not look right to me.

Looking forward to doing a better job on mine with the help of those with more experience and know-how.

Great looks. Questions. What is a double action airbrush, and does the Model Masters paint then need a coal of clear to protect it?

Buy Dave Platt's weathering DVD, he is the master and you can't go wrong. He goes into washes, hatches, color spectrum, etc.

Moggy

Were can I get my hands on this DVD you mentioned ?

This was my first attempt at weathering a warbird came out better then I thought

A double action airbrush is one where you can control both aiir volume/pressure and also paint volume. I use the lustre coat clear over Model Masters paint. As a matter of fact, I will layer my weathering. Between coats, this allows me to wipe off what I dont want between coats and or protect the finish from the next layer of weathering. ON the wing hellcat,after getting the right tones and shades of blue to represent a sea weathered plane, I cleared it and then proceeded on with thestaining , oit , exhaust etc. I made the exhaust to dark once and just wiped it off without causing any change/damage to the undercoat

This is an excellent tip and just the kind of thing we need. Thanks.

TFGS F4U Painting done with foam rollers. Base Coat Silver, then Blue. Panel lines and burned in rivets. Stressing done to the paint with OOOO steel wool. Done in some spots to expose the metal look underneath. Exhaust trail done with black model masters thin with denatured alcohol then brushed on with tissue, and steel wooled down. Not as good as many but I am satisfied I like them to look worn. Kevin.

Another, sorry it made me do 1 at a time.

Last one, Kevin.

This could become a very good thread. I hope the tips keep coming. I am bookmarking.

I for one am interested in paint chips. On small scale models, I found them very hard to produce but I eventually developed a technique after lots of practice. That said, I cannot imagine the same technique would work out very well on larger RC planes.

Crashproof, thank you for your tips. I'm sure many are in my situation, not having a spray set-up. Your methods and results are very helpful, using common tools and items. That variance in color looks good to me, as well as the exposed distressing.

A got a tip on chips from a fellow and tried it. here are a couple pictures. He crumples up tin foil, paints it with silver paint, then dabs it on. I tried it on the leading edges of the wings and tail, and on the front of the cowls. You get that random irregular look you need and it takes all of maybe two minutes.

She definitely looks distressed. A much better look than without, for sure. Thanks.

Here is the wing from our new Meister P-47 covered with Flight Metal aluminum, then brushed with 0000 steel wool. I still need to do something with the shinny insignia. More pictures of it are in my gallery. I masked some of the panels off and brushed them individually, then did the whole thing.

Both look nice Ram, good work. Kevin.

Alright - exhaust stains, heat stains, leading edge paint peeling...
1 masking
2 that is a brown base and rust paint
3 chrome yellow for the unburned hot oil stain
4 second layer brown
5 semi gloss for the center
6 all 3 layers
7 top view
8 leading edge - aluminum paint
9 foot prints and wear marks on the wing

Weathering is very important - airplanes in a "new' condition just don't look right to me. I try to simulate a combat ship, right at the time of their duty cycle.

Thanks for the contribution G-Pete. Our sentiments exactly. I struggle with heat marks and authentic looking exhaust trails (among other things). But these are among some of the most important details to the combat look, IMO. From what I have read, they didn't clean them, they barely had time to maintain them.

On the P-38, do you know, was the area surrounding the turbocharger a different metal, or just painted with something more resistant to heat? Your exhaust looks exceptional. That is airbrushed?

Leading edges look very convincing as well. How was this done?

The uneven wear/chipping around rivets looks good also. Seems as the planes flexed and were subjected to different temps, this was the case.

On this rivet exposure, I experimented with this on our Jug. I embossed the aluminum skin with rivets and other detail, then after painting a stripe, for example, I took my tool back over the area before the paint was completely hard. Here is the result.