OK, warbird experts I have a weathering question as I start to weather my Taylor Spitfire. Would you streak your fuselage with weathering perpendicular to the thrust line or perpendicular to the ground when it's on it's wheels? Most color profiles seem to show it weathered top to bottom perpendicular to the thrust line, but would this look 'right' on the ground. I'm talking about the general streaking. I've done all my painting in a top to bottom motion, and on the wing in a chordwise motion.

Here is a picture after the initial steps of weathering the bottom of one of the wing tips. I'm still a few days away from really getting into the weathering as I need to finish stenciling....does it ever end!?! lol

Thanks for any input!

Sean:
Most of the weathering on the fuse would be caused by the sun fading the paint and the rain washing dirt and oil off of the fuse. I weather mine perpendicular to the ground. I spray a dark wash or use graphite powder in the panel and rivet lines then I spray a gray wash on the upper surfaces to give the paint the faded, sun bleached look. Lastly, I simulate oil streaks perpendicular to the thrust line because the prop blast and slip stream would blow the oil in the the direction of the thrust line. Here is a picture of a P-47 I did last summer. I have the pictures as larger files that show the details better but they are too large to post here. I can email tham to you if you like.

Sean, for the most part the Spitfire underside got weather from oil streaking back along the fuse from up front. I have a Watanabi book that shows that part in to be pretty heavily weathered. There is also the normal weathering that takes place along the wing and stab from flight, take offs and landings. Not to mention the powder burst smudges at the leading edge and back. Regards BobH... BTW.. only a few more weeks to Delaware!!! ..

thanks for the tips guys! ksonn, please go ahead and email those pics to me at [email protected] i have a high-speed connection there. Also, please share what you used for the 'wash' and to thin it. I have been using testors enamels so far and plan on using lustrecoat clear when it's all said and done....much like you did. I'm just in the process of spraying some clear gloss in the the stencil areas so i can get the water slide decals to lay flush, then i will clear coat over them again before the flat lustrecoat clear coat. thanks

Sean, go to a good plastic model shop and get some decal set. It makes decals lay super flat!! the Decals will wrinkle at first, look terrible.. but. once dry, they look like paint!.. I use the acrylics also.. burnt umber.. sienna, lamp black..white. etc.. BobH.

Thanks Bob, coincidently I picked up some micro-sol decal solvent yesterday from my lhs for just that purpose. I still think they will hide the clear film better on a glossy surface. I'm really not doing too many, and on a light surface it won't be noticable but i think some on a dark surface will be. I'll post my results as i go.

BTW, thanks to Heavy Date (Hans) for making up some great custom decals very quickly!!

Sean, The spit is looking fantastic! Ive been following the photos closely and its making me nostalgic for when I built mine. Great job so far. Incidentally, Im doing an paint experiment right now with the testors paints. Im re-painting my ziroli jug with testors enamels. I plan to try some PPG clear with flattener over the testors paint. I will let you know how it goes when I get the chance to do a test section. Keep up the great work!
Evan Q.

Sean:

I emailed the pictures to you. The plane was painted with latex exterior flat paint. The gray and black washes were also latex. I mixed a couple drops of paint into lots of water. Basically, the washes were colored water. I used an airbrush to apply them. It took several light coats before you can start to see the effects. On the last plane I did (unfortunately I do not have any pictures) I used artist chalk to get the effects of the black wash. I like the artist chalk better because you have more control on how much you put into a panel or how wide of an oil streak you simulate. If you are applying a clear coat, do not use lighter colored artist chalk to simulate paint fading. The clear coat will turn it dark. I found this out the hard way . The plane that I used artist chalk on crashed and burned but I still have the tail section and wing. I will try to get some pictures of the tail section and wing over the weekend and send them to you so you can see the different effect it produces over airbrushing.

Sean, attached is an image I scanned from The Great Book of WWII Airplanes, Illustrations by noted illustrator Riku Watanabi..As you can see there is heavy weathering on the bottom center part of the fuse. This image resembles a photograph of a spitfire taken from the ground as it was flying overhead. Hope it helps..

Evan, you will like the testors enamels.. I would prefer to use Model Master Acrylics myself but the enamels get really hard after they dry..The good thing about the acrylics is that they use water for the thinner and clean up.. and you get the same type of finish (just about) as you do with the enamels....

Regards BobH.

Duh!!!!!!! would help if I attached the image!!! LOL BobH.

Thanks guys for jumping on this! Painting and weathering is my favorite part of the building process....not just because it symbolizes the light at the end of the tunnel!

Kirk, thanks for the pictures, your jug looks great and is a good 'bar' to shoot for!! I too have used the chalks in the past and really liked them....especially the lighter ones on a dark surface...looks great....up until you clear coat and all your hard work disappears! Been there, done that, got the t-shirt! I was fearfull of thining out the testors enamel too much and affecting the paint that is already on there. I'll try a couple very very light coats and see what happens. Thanks again!

Evan, thanks for the comps, I admire your work and have often gone to your site to check out your progress!! Can never have too many warbirds.

Bob, thanks for the picture, I have that book at home...great big monsterous thing with about a dozen ww2 planes. A great resource...as well as a great weight for holding down laminated parts!
One thing that is nice about paintings is I find them a lot easier to duplicate weathering on a model from (rather than a photo). I think it's because essentially we are painting as well, on a 3d canvas.

I'll make sure I post my results when I'm finished.

Hi Sean!

I am intrigued about the Testors enamels. I have used them on some Speed 400 electric warbirds, but never on the "big" stuff.

Do you have a good place for sourcing the paint in larger quantities? Or do you just buy a lot of the little bottles?

Your Spitfire looks gorgeous! Keep up the great work!

Regards!

Paul

Thanks Paul,
I haven't found the enamels in larger quantities, and it can be expensive at the LHS level, usually around $2.50 per little jar. I have ordered a couple times from Gary at UBHobbies in Tacoma, WA (http://www.ubhobbies.com/door/) and found them to be very friendly, ship quickly, and the price is about $1.49 per jar. He was also intrigued about using them on such a buig model and he asked me to send a couple pics for him to post in his store. With shipping I bought about $40 worth of paint for the spitfire and have used about 2/3 of it. I used about $40 worth on my large Ziroli Hellcat. Certainly not the cheapest method, but i like having very little guess work with mixing (I can get the exact color then I just need to lighten it or darken it a tad for realism on the larger model), and thin it about 35-40% with acetone (I imagine lacquer thinner would work fine to...I just had a gallon of acetone there so I tested it and used it). Also, if you consider the investment of money and time in the model as it stands, then I don't think that is much to spend on paint.

And I should point out that you still need to fuel proof them...i'm sure you didn't on your electrics.

Sean, have you ever used the model master paints, the acrylic types..? I have never painted an entire plane with them but I imagine you could and they have all the FS numbers as well plus they are water thinned.. I use them for weathering with very good results...
Yeah the book is big and heavy!! I scanned the pic for you and had to hold the book during the scan cause its so big!! lol... BobH.

Testors are great, but also worth trying are the Humbrol enamels, I find the Humbrol camo colours have great colour pigmentation and go amazingly far! 6 tiny tins of #94 desert sand were enough to spray (airbrush) the entire upper surfaces of my 1/6 scale 96" span Fiesler Storch. The Humbrol enamels can take quite a bit of thinner also so don't let the tiny tin size fool you...

Another weathering tip- use finest grade steel wool and rub carefully vertically top to bottom on fuse and chord wise along wing (not in circular motion). Do this straight after colour application before weathering e.g. washes etc. The effect gives an appearance of painted metal....


Cheers-

Bob,

What do you think all the black weathering on the bottom of the fuse between the wheels is from? the engine? do you think it could be mud and dirt kicked up from the wheels or would that be farther out on the wing?

Ozcan,

Good tip on the steel wool. I have been using something like a scotchbright pad wiping it chordwise on the wing and vertically on the fuse.


I'm on the home stretch now....where am I to date and where am I going next? I've finished all the color paint (except the exhaust stacks) and have added the water slide decal stencils. Also have 2 light coats of clear over the decals to protect them a little from the scotchbright pad. The plane is painted so far in testor's MM enamels. I plan on finishing the sanding with the pads and then starting with the pastel dust in the panel lines, rivets etc and then using an acrylic as a wash over the whole plane. lighter in the dark areas and darker in the light areas. I figured I'd try the acrylics for this so I'm not adding almost 100% solvent to the surface...it will be almost all water. I think that will be safer. Then i'll add some dry-brushed silver for wear, etc. Then clear coat with lustrcoat flat clear.

I'll continue to post step by step pics on my site in the projects section. I figure this project should be finished in the next week or so, that will have been 5 months start to finish.

Sean, I have wondered where those streaks came from.. and my guess is that it's oil..could be some weep holes in the bottom of the fuse not shown on the picture..?? Hey... if your comming to Delaware?.. bring the spit if you can.. You can just display it or even fly ? it after 5 pm...lol Regards BobH.

Bob, I'd sure like to make it down there. We'll have to talk more via email to make arrangements, etc.

I did some more painting on the spit. I sanded it all down then sprayed on some very thinned down almost-white and almost-black...kinda tan and dark brown. It was acrylic so is was water based. I was trying to get a faded streaked look...I didn't like how the paint went on ...and I think that is because I had it TOO watered down and it just seemed to bead up. so instead of throwing the plane in the bin (LOL) i sprayed a little mist on and took a paper towl and wiped it off so that it would catch in the rivets and hopefully have a streaked look to it. I'll attach a couple pics. I think it will have the weathered look OK. When i wiped it i only wiped the wing from the front to the back...and not the back to the front. and the fuse i wiped top to bottom only. figuring that this is the way the real plane would streak.

here's another picture......not sure if they really show too well or not. i think once the even flat clear is on it should be better.

Sean, I think its really good looking so far!... Seems to capture the weathered look real nicely.. You know where the WOD even is being held dont you?... If not.. you can go to the Delaware RC web Site and they have directions on how to get there. You can even register on-line if you like.. Keep in touch BobH.