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Advice sought on paint finish


hovis

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I need some advice to reactivate my modelling mojo again.  I'm building a Greek Air Force Corsair II, painted it up in the correct SEA colour scheme, knowing fine well I should've lightened each colour a bit, but I didn't.  Then I went ahead and decaled, Kleared and weathered it, but it's ended up looking a bit too dark for my liking.

 

Question is, how can I go about lightening up the paintwork and giving a bit of a sun-bleached look to it without ruining the decals?

 

Chris

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I recently did a British Pacific Fleet Corsair MkII on which the paint looked a bit fresh.  I over sprayed it with a light mist of thinned Tamiya Sky Grey having first masked off some areas I wanted to keep fresh.  If you do it unevenly some panels will look more faded than others.  The advantage is that the markings will get faded too...

 

a liitle bit then stop and walk away is the key...

Edited by Grey Beema
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Thanks for replying.

 

So, on a three-tone colour scheme, would you spray a thin light mist of each colour, rather than say, an overall mist of light grey or white?

 

I hear what you say about doing a bit at a time though, I'd be scared of overdoing it on the first squirt....

 

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Looking at a few pictures on the internet I think I would do a general fade with an overall thinned mist coat with the flow turned right down pressure turned up a bit to ensure the mist.  It is very noticeable that there is fresh paint around the the panelling on the nose and that the edges of that fresh paint are straight.  I think I'd be breaking out the post it notes for that.  

 

Remember do do a little bit then walk away....

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Grey Beema, that's fantastic work, especially the wing with the original "clean" roundal area compared with the rest it.  That's exactly what is needed!

 

Cheers Alex, I have that pic and that's exactly the look I was trying to get, although as I say, I used the correct paints but didn't bother my ars head to lighten them a touch.  As you can see though, it does get really sun bleached!  In fact, that is the actual airframe I'm building...

Edited by hovis
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Chris,

 

Can I suggest that you mask off the nose before the fading as the black there looks in reasonably good nick.  After the fading paint in around the panel edges in the original colour.  You could also fade the odd panel slightly more..

Oh and let us know how you got on...

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I have applied a bit of a browny grime wash to the panel lines as in the pic Alex above linked to, but again I think it needed to be a lighter shade....

 

I'll see if I can work out this photobucket thingy and show you what I'm dealing with.

 

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WP_20180312_23_25_31_Rich_LI.jpg

 

OK it worked.

 

Now, remember I'm haven't started a lot of the dirtying and weathering yet as I thought the paint was too dark, and the model is shiny after the Klear coat for the decals, I'mm be matting that down big time stylee.  But compare with Alex's link above and you can see the difference.  That green patch below the cockpit is meant to be the darker of the two greens in the camo scheme!!  

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Do bear in mind that the paint will look distinctly lighter after you apply a flat coat, especially the darker colors. Since you haven't flat-coated yet, another possible technique would be to mix a very small amount of gray in with the flat coat itself.

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To be honest, I've never tried the gray mixed in the flat coat technique, but one of my modeling friends has and claims success. I'd err on the side of caution: apply the flat coat unmixed first, then re-evaluate.

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One option you might consider is to work over the camo colours you have applied with oil paints. You can get some basic sets for no much money and mix up a range of tones for each of the base colours and apply and work in to give you shading and fading effects. If you over do it and don’t like the finish just wipe it off with a bit of enamel thinners.

 

once you have the effect you like. Let it fully dry over a number of days

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Lots of good ideas and suggestions so far and all will work well, it depends on which medium you are most comfortable at using. In your particular situation with the decals on and gloss coated (I presume the decals are sealed in with the gloss?) i would go for fading with oil paints. The advantage there is they remain workable for a long time and can be completely removed while still workable if you think you've over done it or just don't like the effect. Small dots of light colours randomly placed then worked in to spread them around should work a treat. There are lots of examples of how to do this technique on the internet if you are unsure.

 

Duncan B

 

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Very true Duncan, lots of food for thought.  As you mention, they're all fairly different, and not any technique I've tried up til now.

 

Misting might be a good "quick fix", but isn't modelling all about trying to improve your technique for the next model?  Both pastels and oils sound like good advice, I have used oils before, but only the two shades of brown I use for oil stains and grime like that.  I might actually try the oil route on this one, the technique I have slightly more experience with.  I'll post up how it went on here just in case there's any interest.

 

Thanks everybody.

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