Feb 8, 2007

Weathering & distressing

Everyone has a different take on just how much weathering and distressing is right for RC warbirds, and to be honest, no answer is "correct" for all planes. Some are restorations, nice and shiny, while others are models of historical aircraft that have seen varying levels of both nature's elements and man's battle scars. Add to that, the length of time the aircraft had been in the field, whether it was land-based or on a carrier at sea, and how much "action" it had seen... you get a wide range of possibilities.

My personal taste is for planes that have a decent amount of weathering, since it tends to make the plane look more like a full scale bird instead of a model. Also, the historical battle history of the plane is part of what draws me to it, so I don't care a whole lot for restorations. There's nothing wrong with modeling restorations, it actually gives you a better chance of doing well in competition (more docs and photos available), but it's just not my cup of tea.

The main thing is, weather and distress your plane accordingly. Don't add dirt and scars to your plane if it's a restoration, and don't leave it showroom finish if it spent any time in battle. Here's the rundown on the weathering of Black 3.


Model Master's Acrylics

 

Paints used

I used a variety of waterbased hobby acrylics to do the majority of my weathering. These were virtually all Model Masters brand. The finish of your paint isn't that important, since you will ultimately clear over it anyway.

Waterbased acrylics are low-tox, water cleanup and very mild on your airbrush. I don't use a lot of different colors, since I mix most of them "on the fly" to get the various shades I need. Some of the colors I used were Flat Black, Flat White, Leather, Armor Sand, Rust and some RLM 76.



Getting started with "layering"

I had already used various tones of my 3 base colors to "mottle" the shades of my color scheme back when I painted the airframe, which is really the beginning step of making your finish "weathered" and believable. Make sure you have some good reference photos handy so you can get a feel for what real-life weathering and distressing would look like on a warbird. And more specifically, get good photos of how your particular airframe weathered in the field.

The overall process of weathering is not a single step that you "just do." Rather it is a sequence of steps that I call "layering." Some of these "layers" of weathering must be done in a specific order, others aren't as critical that they are done in any specific order. For example, you can do windstreaking, then panel line accents... or vice versa. It will work both ways, but you'll get a slightly different result depending on which order you follow.

Accenting panel lines

The first step I did when weathering this plane was to go in and accent my panel lines to help bring them out. They were inherently off-shade on full scale planes since they collected dirt in their seams and they were occasionally handled around the edges when removed for repair.

I accent mine by going over them very lightly with an airbrush using various shades of "dirt blends". This process can vary slightly depending on the color scheme that you are weathering. In other words, the base colors/hues can effect your choices for what colors will most realistically augment the panel lines in the desired fashion.

This time, I chose to use various dark and medium gray shades that were a mixture of Black, Leather and Armor Sand colors. These colors were mixed and then diluted extensively, as much as 50-70% water in most cases. On the lighter RLM 76 colors, I actually used some Acrylic RLM 76 in the mixture to keep the hue on track. Yellows get more of the brown "Leather" color for accents, and the red areas actually get the RLM 23 Red in place of the Armor Sand color. Don't overdo this step, you just want to "hint" the lines.













Windstreaking

In order to get that "wind-streaked" look that is produced from hundreds of hours of weather beating across your wing surface in flight, you need to use a "wash technique." The technique is done by wetting your wing down with the appropriate thinner, which in my case was simply "water."

Next you wash the wing in chord-wise strokes only (from leading edge to trailing edge), using an extremely thinned down light gray color. The way I did it was to fill my airbrush with water, add a few drops of a light gray shade in it (Model Master's Acrylic) and get a damp towel/rag folded into a small square shape.

Next I shot the damp towel with the airbrush to get it soaked with the "tinted water" (about 90% water) and began wiping the plane from leading edge to trailing edge, moving from tip to root. Add more paint to the rag as needed, and be careful not to overdue this step. Note that until the water evaporates, it will be very hard to see, and appear much darker. Once the water evaporates/dries, you'll really see the streaks show up and they will look much lighter.

If you find that your streaking is too strong, it's very easy to tone it down or completely remove it. Simply get out a very fine steel wool pad and lightly rub the surface down. The streaking will buff off long before damaging any of your color coats or weathering.

I did the same effect on the horizontal stab, and just a small amount on the vertical fin. If you want, you can do the streaking effect on the fuse too, but I didn't. This effect is mostly noticeable on the wings of full scale planes, not the fuse. Fuse streaks tend to run around the fuse vertically, being produced more on the ground instead of the air.

 


Oil, dirt, smoke and exhaust stains

Of course no weathering job would be complete without oil, smoke and exhaust stains caused by the plane itself. For oil stains, I begin by airbrushing the streak with thin black, then go in and hand brush very thinned down black to produce the oil runs. I repeatedly apply this step to build up the density of the black run in the right areas.

The smoke stains produced by guns and exhaust stacks are produced by shooting a mix of black, brown and a touch of gray in the area of the stain. The heat of the exhaust will discolor the paint around the exhaust area to a goldish brown tint, which is done again with a thin brown Acrylic mixture.

The smoke buildup has some black in it, somewhat like chimney soot. Exhaust stains will leave this black sooty look down the side of the fuse too, but often will appear more like a "brown" color on some planes.

Photographic evidence shows that this effect varied a lot across various warbirds. I imagine the design of the exhaust system, proximity to the fuselage walls, and difference in the engines and fuel mixtures effected the look substantially. In the case of the FW190, the exhaust staining was quite prominent and usually exhibited much more of the browner shades than some of the other warbirds like the Dauntless that I did recently.















Distressing the paint

In order to simulate the chipping, peeling and overall distressing that paint exhibits after a good while in service, I used a simple technique. Some modelers will prefer to paint the plane silver before shooting color coats, then sand down to the silver in heavy wear areas. This is fine, but I use a different technique. Most of the photos I have seen show that the paint discolors, chips and eventually peels off the surface in a variety of shapes and sizes. Usually you will find this to happen on the edges and corners of panels, and around rivets and screws.

To simulate this effect, I went around the edges of panels hitting random spots with a color called "Steel" to emulate peeling paint. Drybrushing strokes on the plane does not produce this effect. You must actually go in and paint each paint peel, in what would be a naturally occurring shape in which paint peels. This is very random in shape, size and distribution and as a rule, will peel "around" rivets leaving the paint on the rivet. Areas that are covered with FliteMetal can also be treated by scraping paint back to reveal the FliteMetal, which can be a very interesting effect.

This painting up to and around rivets is probably the most effective technique in making the peeling look realistic. Occasionally you will also have large areas peel off on smooth surfaces that get wear, even if they aren't a panel edge. I also have noticed that for some reason the underside of the plane tends to peel a great deal more than the top and sides, especially in the areas of bomb release and gear bays.

If you just stop here and leave the peeling as is, you'll find that it just looks sharp and high in contrast... much like all the peels/chips just happened a few minutes ago. The way I fix this is to follow back over these areas with some very thin (80% water) dirt/grime color.

I go around the edges of each "peel/chip" and accent them with a combination of brown and gray colors to simulate a little primer, dirt, grime, oxidation, rust, etc. that collects on the edges of the paint peels. This tones back the peels, blends them into the overall weathering effects, and looks much more convincing.

 

Effects gallery

Here is a large collection of photos I took of the various weathering effects I applied to Black 3. This will give you an idea of how they appear against different colors, and how the weathering might occur around a variety of airframe features.

Stepping up

This next effect that I call "The Human Factor" is a reminder of the men who risked their lives in these planes every day. What is it? Simply put... footprints. Yes that's right, men had to walk around on the wings of these birds to climb in and out of them and also to refuel and service them. Put the Luftwaffe out in the field where they get dirt on their plane and shoes, and you've got the perfect recipe for footprints.

I cut a left and right boot print out of posterboard and used it as a mask to airbrush a highly diluted Armor Sand color onto the wing in random orientations. In the case of the FW190, you really want to keep this effect minimal due to the way the plane was "mounted" by the pilot. They actually stepped up onto a drop step in the fuse underside, then stepped over to a toe-hold in the side of the fuse to climb on into their office.

I just do a few prints on one side of the wing as I'm sure from time to time they might just climb up on the wing to reach into the cockpit, grab equipment, etc.. Also you would still have crew walking the wing as they service the plane, especially the top blisters of the wing guns.

You have to keep this just a very light dusting of paint, and be sure to included "partial prints." The end result was really cool looking and should be a very unique touch to draw attention on the flight line.

 













Final look

Well that's pretty much it. She's all weathered and ready for decals and clear coat. These have been my techniques and are certainly not the only way to go about it. I accumulated most of these techniques in years of IPMS competition (plastic scale modeling) and they helped me win a lot of competitions.

I found most of these techniques to be very successful when weathering my SBD Dauntless, but some of them I have modified this time around to try out some different techniques. Every time I do this I'm sure I will try out new ideas and methods to continuously learn and improve my skills.

Actually, I have just a couple more minor layers of weathering to add, but they have to be applied after decals, just before clear coat application. Next up will be those decals... as usual, I procrastinated too long in getting them designed and ordered so I'll have to take a short break while I wait for them to arrive. Stay tuned.

 



 


"finishing up"


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