Natural Weathering Part II - Vulcan XM600 (Updated July)

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

Welcome to the second installment of my natural weathering project. If you missed Part 1 then you can find it here.

WIP: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234979698-vulcan-xm655-a-natural-weathering-experiment-with-completed/?hl=xm655

RFI: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992518-weathering-vulcan-xm655-naturally/?hl=xm655

Here we have XM600, a cruel fated Vulcan that crashed near Spilsby in 1977. This Vulcan was one of only two Vulcans to be given a dark sea grey cammo upper surface with a white belly. I think the light an dark contrast well in terms of aesthetics so I thought, why not...

I finished this Vulcan over a year ago and the gloss finish was looking a little flat, so...

Glossy Vulcan!

Three fresh coats to (hopefully) protect the decals (those of you who have seen the experiment with XM655 will know the decals didn't fare well).

Back to this Vulcan - Compared to XM655 featured in Part 1 this Vulcan is considerably better made. Unlike XM655 this Vulcan had all of its surfaces sanded. I've re-scribed of all the panel lines which meant sanding the old ones away and I thought while I was at it I would do all of the surfaces to give a better key for the paint to adhere.

I even went to the trouble of separating the outer elevons (but at the time I didn't dare do the inner elevons). The fuselage windows were also drilled and covered with some clear plastic I found. This Vulcan also had a fair bit of filler applied for that overall smoother look, it was by far my most advanced effort to that date.

However after a mainly successful build it all went wrong with the paint!

I was fairly happy with the camouflage, a little unbalanced but not too badly. It was the belly that was the source of disappointment.

It wasn't sprayed, but brushed and I don't know if it's just the Humbrol white that was the issue but I had to put six or seven coats, so when it came time to match up the upper and lower surfaces the thickness of the paint was somewhat uneven. The white on the belly also comes up too high on the fuselage and the match up on the leading edges around the intakes isn't right. Finally when it came time to paint the fuselage Radome black, I also brought that up too high, so all in all a bad paint job.

Fortunately I have since learned from my mistakes...

So, same table/runway, same garden, same materials but a more advanced build.

The differences? Well, XM655 was a matt finish all over and this one is (mostly) gloss. The radome and tail cap are finished in satin and the jetpipe caps and wheels are finished in matt. This one also has Humbrol Gloss-Cote whereas XM655 had Matt Cote as the top layers and the brown Humbrol stuff as the first coats and underneath the decals.

This one has been given about five days in a warm airing cupboard, so hopefully the varnish will be fairly dry and will hold for longer.

Oh, and this one is going out in winter, where XM655 went out in spring...

As before she is screwed to the table, but I have given more lift on nose this time.. I'm not entirely sure why I did that, I may drop it more level later on..

After quite a nice day, it rained all over me whilst setting this up, which was fun... On the plus side it did give the pictures a nice effect.

Here is how she looks on 22nd November 2015..

If you think the front U/C looks a little skew-wiff, it's because it is... I knocked it off during setup and it didn't glue back together properly, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to un-mount the Vulcan to glue it back on, so it will probably fall off...

I hope that the gloss varnish will help to stop the paint peeling as happened on XM655. After only a few months the decals started to come off, I'm hoping XM600's will hold for longer...

A good sign was when I varnished XM655 just before she went out I lost a few minor ones but on XM600 no decals came away at all.

 

So, let the weathering commence!

Thanks for looking and stay tuned.

Edited July 20, 2017 by graveszie
Update

[Flying Badger]

yay!

More weathering....

[racer53]

I really enjoyed reading part one, I look froward to following this.

[zdfgdcv]

I really enjoyed reading part one, I look froward to following this.

Thanks A lot

[k5054nz]

Good luck! I'm super excited for this. I love the scheme, by the way, very pretty.

[zdfgdcv]

Good luck! I'm super excited for this. I love the scheme, by the way, very pretty.

Thanks very much.

[zdfgdcv]

Merry Christmas Britmodeller,

It's been a month since XM655 experiment ended and XM600 took its place - out in the cold.

Actually there is very little to report so far other than the XM600 is fairing much better than XM655 did.

The theme at the moment is very much water - as you'll see....

Even more soaked than the day I set it up in the usual scale size lake...

At this point with XM655 there was the beginning of varnish deterioration but this time none is present on the gloss areas though there is a little on the satin finished tail cap.

As far as I can see, all the decals are in place - XM655 had lost a few by this stage. Another weird difference though is that the water seems to be clinging to this varnish.

It's really hanging onto the underside, see the rather large blobs on the belly.

Since it is early days I haven't taken very many pictures as there really is nothing to see.

As before the dirt is starting to cover the top and the bottom but since it is completely soaked it's hard to see anything further if indeed there is anything to see.

For now she can sit in the wet and we will wait to see what happens next, but I would like to think that this one is going to make it to the one year point at least. It's looking good so far..

As always, thanks for looking and I will post another update soon.

Stay Tuned!

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

Another month, another post.

Unlike last month there has been some action - and by action I mean deterioration.

From the first picture all would appear normal but for the first time in a long time XM600 is dry!

She has suffered a few cold days...

Taken by my good old Nana on a cold and frosty morning...

Sadly the net is on it, but I share this picture for one reason... Notice the bird dirt on the runway? That's close...

Anyway, to the deterioration..

Notice the spotted effect starting to show itself.

So it appears that the Gloss Cote is susceptible to water as was the Matt Cote. Having said that, this Vulcan has probably experienced far more rain in the last two months than XM655 endured throughout the whole experiment - as I mentioned earlier, it's very rare for it to be dry.

And following the beginning of the varnish deterioration, a decal is letting go...

Now this could just be a coincidence but the right air brake decal was one of the first decals to let go on XM655 too... Odd..

It wasn't just the varnish that has suffered...

As many of you will know, wind has very much been a theme of this winter and it has taken it's toll on the Vulcan.

Notice that the UC looks like it has suffered a bad landing, in fact this has happened when the wind has caught the nose and lifted it rapidly, and since the Vulcan essentially pivots on its rear mounting it has smashed the rear UC into the table.

It's a sad sight to see but the effect was worse on the other side...

It has completely lost two wheels, I've no idea where they are, damaged the ones on the opposite side and the UC door is now out of place..

As anyone who has built an Airfix Vulcan will know, the UC isn't exactly strong to begin with and was never designed to take the kind of impact it has suffered.

So I suppose this is where the XM655 experiment takes a point as that one never suffered any kind of physical damage. But it is my fault that XM600 has suffered this injury - XM655 was much better mounted than XM600 is.

I may have to make XM600's mount stronger but in any event the damage is done so some repair work will have to be done at experiments end...

Despite the damage to the UC and the varnish I am still pleased with the way things are going, when I approached it today to take the pictures the way it caught the sun was very striking.

That's about all for this month, thanks for looking...

Stay Tuned!

Edited February 2, 2016 by graveszie

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

Another month and another visit.

This month this will be brief, only because there isn't really anything much to report on..

As you can see it looks pretty much the same as before, but you might notice the small piece of decal in the usual scale lake...

And while we're on the subject...

It seems that no amount of Gloss Cote will protect the roundels...

As before, varnish deterioration is proceeding but still much slower than the Matt Cote did on XM655 and that's pretty cool considering this Vulcan is enduring much more wet weather.

There is an interesting deformation of the varnish just inside the intake where the DSG ends and on the lip of the tunnel also, a similar effect was present on the upper fuselage on XM655.

Finally, we saw last month that the U/C had taken a pounding..

Well, it's not got any better, obviously. But it hasn't got much worse either...

As you can see the left side is still suffering but it's still holding. The right side is exactly as it was last month.

Now though, the damage caused when mounting this Vulcan is beginning to show itself more.

The front U/C is showing signs of letting go..

That's about all for this month.

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned!

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

It's been a while since my last post and the reason is, well, the Vulcan has been doing really well compared to the last one. So I thought I would leave it until the six month mark for which we are practically at.

I went for a visit today expecting it to be in worse condition than I left it and lets say I am surprised...

So, how does it look?

Let's start at the bottom...

As you can see that left side UC is still hanging on, I don't think there is really much more damage than there was before but we have had less wind.

Moving up, and yes in traditional style the roundels have let go on the fuselage..

Most of the other decals are holding on though..

Wing decal on it's way out, it's interesting how the edges seem to last the longest..

and the airbrake decals letting go.. Interesting how the right side one is letting go quicker than the left, the exact same thing happened in the previous experiment.

You can also see where I covered one decal with another.. Oops..

Quite a bit of dirt building up in the elevon's..

There is evidence all over it that the varnish is in the early stages of letting go, overall though, she is holding up much better than the previous, I think by this stage on the last experiment we were looking at the early stages of paint peel, certainly no evidence of that this time round.... So far...

Now we are virtually at six months and comparatively so little deterioration - I may visit again next month but I think that very little will have happened so expect the next post to be around mid-end summer...

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned...

Adam.

[TheBaron]

I've a Sunderland I didn't make a terribly good fist of and am tempted to leave it out by the pond as a Coastal Command experiment after seeing this Adam.

Really interesting long term project sir.

Tony

[zdfgdcv]

I've a Sunderland I didn't make a terribly good fist of and am tempted to leave it out by the pond as a Coastal Command experiment after seeing this Adam.

Really interesting long term project sir.

Tony

Thank you kindly sir.

[John Laidlaw]

This is strangely compelling, Adam - looking forward to the next report!

[Gary West]

And the conclusion drawn from this exercise is...........keep your kits in a display cabinet INDOORS

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

It's been a while since I visited XM600 last; with the slow degradation there's been little point.

However since it was May when I last visited I figured it was about time, especially since this week will likely be the last hurrah of summer for 2016.

We are now about ten months into this experiment; by this stage with the previous experiment on XM655 in the Matt finish, had been retired to the warm and dry shelter of my house having lasted seven months before terminal degradation. XM600 on the other hand is now ten months in the British weather and going strong...er than the other. While the Decals are letting go all over the place the varnish and paint is holding.

Lets have a look...

Over a year out in the weather the runway/table is in worst condition than the Vulcan.

And as before, the rear UC still damaged and soaked, but holding...

While we're on the subject of UC, I mentioned earlier that the nose UC may decide to depart before the rest of the plane....

Well as it turns out I was right...

I can't find it anywhere and in keeping with tradition, the roundels have left the plane.

What I do find interesting however is the pattern that's formed on the upper surfaces...

Looking at that you might think XM600 was wet but it isn't, the surfaces were bone dry and being baked by the sun when I arrived...

The left side of the tail is the only part of the Vulcan that isn't really showing much signs of weathering, it was the same on XM655 as well...

And finally, beware killer bugs on the cockpit....

As we approach the end of what was really an OK summer for the UK, I await what the winter will deliver, baring in mind this Vulcan was placed in November last year it has already been through half a winter. While the paint is weathering much better on this model, XM655 from the previous experiment never lost any components and so far with XM600 we're looking at two missing wheels and the entire nose UC assembly. But in fairness all of that is my fault, if I had secured XM600 as firmly as I did XM655, these losses would not have occurred.

The experiment continues...

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned...

Adam

[S5 modeller]

Picture 6 looks really convincing, I bet that's how actual vulcans looked after a hard service life.

A very interesting experiment, and executed in a clear scientific way.

Matt

[zdfgdcv]

Merry Christmas Britmodeller,

 

It's now been just over one year since XM600 was sent to her runway in the garden, now outlasting the previous experiment of XM655 by almost six months.

And the news is, she'll be out there for a while longer...

 

Today's question is what's with all the red?

According to what I hear, it just appeared and I have no idea what it actually is...

But that aside there are some interesting patterns appearing in the model.

 

 

Rain is often the theme around here and it seems its also inside the Vulcan...

Just in front of the console has filled with a little rain.

 

 

Lots of dirt building in the deepened channels around the elevons and once again a difference in the paint colour where the wing roundel decal used to be.

 

 

But after nearly two years of Vulcan experiments, finally a bird managed to hit with their deification missiles.

 

 

A top view shows what other angles doesn't seem to, there are areas clearly on the wings where the varnish has let go, but the paint is holding.

 

 

 

That's all for this edition, so once again Merry Christmas and thanks for looking...

 

Adam

 

 

[geedubelyer]

She's looking good Adam.

I'd like to see an experiment like this carried out with painted markings. It would be interesting to see if the colours would fade in the same way as the full sized birds.

 

If you find out what the red in the water is could you let us know please?

We have something similar in a bird bath. It starts clean but turns red after a while. I thought it might have been something on the surface of the bird bath but the red returns even after the bird bath was given a wash in detergent.

 

Happy Christmas to you and yours.

[HOUSTON]

Adam 

 

 

Whoa  ... I had forgotten this for a while until it just resurfaced. 

 

The weathering is simply ASTOUNDING  done quite naturally. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2016 by HOUSTON

[HOUSTON]

As to the red colors in your birdbath  geedublyer   et al ... it is a micro organism called  HAEMATOCOCCUS PLUVIALIS.

 

the red /orange color is due to a pigment called ASTAXANTHIN.

 

THIS PROTECTS THE organisms from sunlight especially  ULTRA VIOLET  Rays. 

 

a pigment  is a molecule that transmit or reflects LIGHT AND the  COLOR is due to the fact that the pigment reflects or ABSORBS different wavelengths of LIGHT ... i. e.  HAEMOGLOBIN & CHLOROPHYLL  are 2 well known pigments.

 

 

I DO NOT have a birdbath or  a garden pond  but I KNOW MY BIOLOGY.. GOT grade A at A level !

 

to clean it.. use mild detergents and regularly but you will not get rid of it completely  as the micro organism  need to survive!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO you and everyone one on Britmodeller Forums. 

HOUSTON 

Edited December 25, 2016 by HOUSTON

[HOUSTON]

20 hours ago, graveszie said:

Merry Christmas Britmodeller,

 

It's now been just over one year since XM600 was sent to her runway in the garden, now outlasting the previous experiment of XM655 by almost six months.

And the news is, she'll be out there for a while longer...

 

Today's question is what's with all the red?

According to what I hear, it just appeared and I have no idea what it actually is...

But that aside there are some interesting patterns appearing in the model.

 

 

Rain is often the theme around here and it seems its also inside the Vulcan...

Just in front of the console has filled with a little rain.

 

 

Lots of dirt building in the deepened channels around the elevons and once again a difference in the paint colour where the wing roundel decal used to be.

 

 

But after nearly two years of Vulcan experiments, finally a bird managed to hit with their deification missiles.

 

 

A top view shows what other angles doesn't seem to, there are areas clearly on the wings where the varnish has let go, but the paint is holding.

 

 

 

That's all for this edition, so once again Merry Christmas and thanks for looking...

 

Adam

 

 

 has it been 2 years.    that is a very realistic experiment that you started and peaked MY interest then..

 

thank  you for the updates.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS  TO you Adam and all the Jolly folks of Britmodeller. 

[Triumph]

If you had seen the Victor they had at Duxford before they took her in to start work on her, it had very much the look of this (indeed if not worse), which means this model can be left as is so as to portray a  museum craft waiting restore work on it. As an aside has the actual structure of the model held up? is there signs of any glue failure?

and Merry Christmas all

Peter

Edited December 25, 2016 by Triumph

[IPMS19]

- Surprising but very interesting.......Merry Christmas evry one

[It's a disease]

Cool!

wonder if lacquer would hold up better?

[Pappy]

G'day chaps,

 

What I find very interesting is that the paint fading/discolouration is not structured and regular along panel boundaries, but far more random, crossing panel lines and it has a more 'bloom; like effect. This is at odd with the current weathering wisdom which, carried out over enthusiastically can make a subject appear like a tartan blanket. The areas where the decals have let go is exactly what you would expect viz tonal differences in the underlying paint. The one effect this method will not replicate is the effect of airflow moving dirt particles over the airframe and abrasion resulting in chips.

 

As Triumph already mentioned, this has closely replicated an airframe left out in the weather, so a close approximation of the effects on a static airframe.

 

Food for thought,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Edited December 26, 2016 by Pappy