I would like to say that I've seen some really nice looking jets/and prop looking acft on this site and while at various flying fields......I was watching Top Gun on t.v. last night with Chris Chanelli,(spelling) and noticed how some of these models looked like they came right out of a Revell kit.....meaning, "real scale jets" and scale aircraft don't look that way unless they just rolled off the assy. line......I have yet to see someone get any props for building a plane that has some dirt on it.....faded paint,scab patch, leading edges that are pitted, paint runs......next time you go to an airshow look at the warbirds( F18's,F16's so on ect....) you'll see grease, dirt, soot, I real mans acft. Unless you have a "Blue Angels" or "Thunder Bird" paint scheme your real pretty planes are missing the mark(sport jets not included)......if you wanna be really scale and look the part get some dirt on your plane.....and leave the Girlie Man plane at home................

you must not have been to bomber field or central texas jet rally. all my stuff is well weathered thx to dan gill and his airbrushing talent. look me up next time you attend bomber. i enjoy being one of the few with a true weathered look. the problem is it is a litle like art, only a few have that kind of talent, you have to vision it first and that is tough. so most people end up with pristine models. but once you go weathered you won't go back, barry

Everyone's a critic.

Let's see some pics of your 'manly' jet models.

Dan

I know what you mean. The guys competing at Top Gun suck, hey have no idea what they are doing.....

Bob I know you wre kidding, but for that other guys info, Dean Cutshall's full scale f-100 Terry Nitch's is modeled after is just as clean as Terry's .

It is easy to go overboard on a weathering job. I'd rather see a jet with a fresh looking paint job than an overdone weathering job.

The F9F Panther that Sung took to Top Gun is an example of a weathering job that looks right. It is definitely a skill that is not easy to master.

Well personally I find it hard to believe that Dean Cutshalls plane is that clean......being that I work for American Airlines in the maint. and eng'ring dept , and been on the acceptance flight from Boeing on numerous B777,757,767 acft.even these planes are somewhat dirty with only a few hours on them......I think the judges from Top Gun should give extra points for real weathering,paint fade, scratches, dents......don't get me wrong, there are alot of real nice looking planes out there, but when it comes to war birds(jets) you won't find a clean one anywhere. David Hudson actually is scratch building a F8 with skin wrinkles already in the mold.....now that is pure genius.......ask BVM to do that with one of his high dollar birds................Perry

I USED to think what you did, but the truth is a lot of the top competitors ARE choosing to model prototypes that are extremely clean. That Hun IS that clean. It's a lovingly maintained piece of high performance toy, not a commercial product like a 767, but something that gets buffed ALL THE TIME. Same with the Super Cub Graeme Mears modeled, etc.
Why do people pick those subjects? Maybe to save weathering, maybe because they look more impressive.
You should look at the work of Dave Platt, his stuff is always weathered, and he does an excellent job of it.

Skin wrinkles in the mold, well, that's nothign new, it's been done plenty of times before. Problem is, you are modelling the skin wrinkles of ONE particular prototype, and you will get marked DOWN if your documentation is for a slightly different bird. There is an F8 at the Intrepid a few blocks away from me, I photographed it pretty extensively because I also built an F-8, and there aren't any wrinkled panels on that bird, it was well-maintained. Maybe Mr Hudson's prototype has some, but the one I looked at up close did not.
So, were I BV, I would not do it either.

Personally, I prefer the look of the model that looks as if it just rolled of the assembly line. All of the weathering that your talking about ( dints, dings, scraps, ripples, etc.) will come with regular use.

Perry
The reason the fleet is not clean is BUCKS, Bottom Line..is how much longer would the bird be non revenue status .Back when the AA fleet was 707's/727's they where waxed/ buffed . Besides here in the world of miniatures.... those dimples in the hatch cover & that oil streak might resemble world look like a botched finished. JMO
Semper Fi
Joe

Mitch Weiss BVM F100?
Scott

......being that I work for American Airlines in the maint. and eng'ring dept , and been on the acceptance flight from Boeing on numerous B777,757,767 acft.even these planes are somewhat dirty with only a few hours on them...... jeteffex

Hi Perry. I know what you are saying, and I personally see wear, tear and oil/hydraulics/fuel/weeping streaks on airplanes every day myself. I used to work for the airlines too (one of the top ten, then later the top one in size) before I got into corporate stuff. Years ago I even worked for a regional "express" airline before I went to the major carriers. The express airline aircraft are the dirtiest by far. Some of those airplanes I would not dare feed a death row prisoner off of the dirty surfaces. They get pressure washed about once a year weather it "needs it or not", sorta like the baths the middle aged royalty took "once a year".

However... if you stepped back about 500 feet and looked at the airplane, you honestly couldn't see much of the filth except the very worst of it. Even the paint had an overall gloss look to it. Those regional airliners compared to the bigger jets I later flew were dirtbags. The bigger jets, even, weren't cleaned all that often but hey... I didn't get as close to them either. I couldn't touch the wing as it was too high, so I also didn't see the individual rivet paint chips and only the bigger hydraulic/oil streaks were visible. The bigger major airline I was at did in fact clean their aircraft more often and they looked pretty good, especially compared to some. That must have been the reason I and the other lower 20 percent seniority guys were "lopped off" Then I went into the corporate flight stuff and well, those things are often cleaned in an obsessive compulsive routine that leaves no interesting "weathering" looks at all except some very minor oil collections under the engine nacelles - but look quick 'cause they won't be there 20 minutes later.

The art of aircraft weathering can be complex, but one simple aspect of it is that it cannot be overdone or it will go from bad to horrible very quickly. Even the dirtiest of full scale airplanes look somewhat clean when viewed from a distance. We always view our models from a "scale distance" even when sitting in front of it on the bench. If you step back a few steps and see overdone panel lines and streaks from ridiculous locations, then the weathering went bad... very bad.

Often, peacetime military aircraft are just as clean as corporate stuff. The crew-chiefs get going on them and they are a point of pride. Only in the throws of combat will you see really wicked looking wear, tear and ammunition streaking like some might expect to be "standard" on all aircraft.

I go somewhat easy on the weathering but I have done my fair share and consider it a strong point of my skills. I see the weathering on the bench, but as the model sits in the pits you can see less of it for sure, and the sunlight conditions can sometimes obscure it all together as in full scale.