Natural Weathering Part II - Vulcan XM600 (Updated July)

[geedubelyer]

20 hours ago, HOUSTON said:

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

......

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO you and everyone one on Britmodeller Forums. 

HOUSTON 

 

 

Many thanks for the explanation HOUSTON. A Merry Christmas to YOU too

[woody37]

It's looking great now, I'd be tempted to bring it indoors and model it as a derelict aircraft!

[zdfgdcv]

On 25/12/2016 at 10:47 AM, geedubelyer said:

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.

Thanks geedubelyer.

I had thought about painting the markings, though I'm not sure how I would do it so they look as rounded as the decals.  But that aside, it's likely they wouldn't fade exactly as was on the aircraft; the paint used here doesn't seem to fade a great deal, or not at least to the extent as I've seen on the real thing.

Even the XM655 experiment after seven months had only suffered small changes in paint tone, and this one is much the same.  I suspect if left out long enough it would but I suspect (based on the previous experiment) the paint would be cracking badly before any significant results are seen.

 

If the Decals would only survive, they would certainly fade.  This model has Decals from the kit as well as a 3rd party set.  While the supplied decals are basically the same colour they were at the start the 3rd party decals have faded, this can be seen on the nose of the model where some of the "Heath and Safety" messages are displayed.

 

On 25/12/2016 at 11:54 AM, Triumph said:

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

Hi Peter,

Glue-wise the structure is sound, every part is still where it should be, except the U/C.  The Vulcan suffered impact damage in high winds which knocked off the nose U/C completely and damaged the rear U/C (See previous posts).

Other than that, a lot of the structure around the join lines are filled with filler, this is also holding and hasn't expanded or bubbled or whatever the correct term is there...

 

On 26/12/2016 at 5:19 AM, Pappy said:

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

Hi Pappy,

Good points there, partly the reason I tried this experiment.

A possible explanation:  The real Vulcan's were sprayed or in some cases done with rollers.

This model is all brush painted and the likely reason for the uneven fade/discolourations might be the differences in paint/varnish thickness, I will confess I'm not much of a painter.

Having said that, it's just a theory, perhaps might be worth doing a similar experiment with a sprayed model.

 

 

 

On 26/12/2016 at 11:26 AM, woody37 said:

It's looking great now, I'd be tempted to bring it indoors and model it as a derelict aircraft!

Hi woody37

I'll admit there is the temptation to bring it back in.

However, XM655 in the previous experiment reached seven months before the paint began to crack badly (the reason for ending that experiment).

I'm now using this one as not only another experiment but also to gauge my ability with model making, if you will.  You see, I suspect the reason XM655 deteriorated so quickly was partly down to the Matt finish but mainly down to my lack of knowledge when it came to finishing the model.

XM600 on the other hand was finished far better than XM655, so it's likely this experiment will end when the paint begins to crack, but how long will that be? is what I want to know.

Does that make sense?

 

 

 

Thank you all for your comments,

Thanks for looking and a Happy New Year!

Edited December 28, 2016 by graveszie

[HOUSTON]

Woody  has the paint begin to Crack anywhere and if so which part of the aircraft did it appears to go first.?

 

curious minds need to know. 

 

thanks.

 

and thanks for experimenting with a beautifully built model in the first place........because  it was A SUPER build..

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by HOUSTON

[zdfgdcv]

On 04/01/2017 at 8:19 AM, HOUSTON said:

Woody  has the paint begin to Crack anywhere and if so which part of the aircraft did it appears to go first.?

 

curious minds need to know. 

 

thanks.

 

and thanks for experimenting with a beautifully built model in the first place........because  it was A SUPER build..

 

(I assumed you were asking me)

There is no sign of paint cracking yet on this model.

XM655 on the other hand started cracking around the wing roundels first, then on one air-brake, followed by cracks near the tail and jetpipes.

 

Thanks again.

[HOUSTON]

Yes Graveszie,

 

 MY brain must have gotten confused with the name ...my mistake !

 

I assume the parts that have started  cracking  is due to them being exposed and open to the elements  more than other parts. interesting. 

 

thank you for your reply. 

[zdfgdcv]

23 minutes ago, HOUSTON said:

Yes Graveszie,

 

 MY brain must have gotten confused with the name ...my mistake !

 

I assume the parts that have started  cracking  is due to them being exposed and open to the elements  more than other parts. interesting. 

 

thank you for your reply. 

No worries.

Actually no, as far as I can see there is no structural cracking at all, that includes this model and XM655.

I'm sure if the model wasn't painted at all then cracks might form after sun damage over time.

 

Even the exposed areas on XM655 where the paint has gone altogether is still glossy, which is possibly the reason the paint cracked in the first place.  

 

This model on the other hand, had all its surfaces sanded prior to painting, where the last experiment XM655, only had very basic sanding in limited areas.

 

This is why I'm keen to find out how long the paint will last this time, this build, while far from perfect, is a far more sophisticated build than XM655, that was just a little more than glue and paint.

 

Adam

Edited January 8, 2017 by graveszie

[HOUSTON]

Thanks Adam for the reply.

 

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

 

Well it's that time again, change of season is upon us, the days are longer and the weather.... a little less British? (OK, so I've stretched the last one a bit).

But what isn't a stretch is the last three months since my last visit seems to have been tough on old XM600.

What you see on the Vulcan here is a little exaggerated (but not by much) thanks to a little play in the editing suite.

But what you see on the table/runway is not exaggerated, it is literally pealing away....

 

 

Let's look closer....

 

As you can see, the varnish is quickly disappearing from the Vulcan's surface.

I also note the (remains) of the air-brake decals are well on the way to fading to white, which is exactly what I hoped for but most of the others are retaining their yellowness.

But on the varnish front, you can see in the below picture, using the sun's light bouncing off the surface to really see the extent of the loss.

 

 

It appears that varnish on the right wing seems to be letting go more than that on the left, not sure why, but it probably comes back down to the application...

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I particularly like in these images is that we are now seeing proper fading of the paint, as you can see the DSG is now several shades lighter than when it begun.

And in the green as well, its definitely loosing the warm tone it had in the beginning.

 

As you can see in the below image, the extent of the table peeling.

I would imagine the constant puddle of water normally present here is responsible for the damage as its only sporadically happening in other places.

But the main reason for this photo, keen spotters of detail will have noticed, we have lost all of the rear wheels on this bogey now....  I'm told it has been recovered, along with the forward U/C.

If this is repeated, I will definitely have to secure it as well as XM655 as this never happened with the other model.

 

 

I am pleased to see that despite the varnish letting go, there is as yet, no sign of paint peeling.

I think now the target for a successful weathering experiment will be when the varnish has let go altogether, by then the paint should be faded nicely and hopefully, it will still cling to the Vulcan's surface.

 

Here's to hoping for a sunny summer...

 

As always, thanks for looking and check back soon.

 

Adam

 

[Guest]

Strange. Very strange. And I read the whole thing. Strange.

[k5054nz]

Fascinating as always, Adam!

[charlie_c67]

Looking in a better condition than some real ones that I've seen outside!

[zdfgdcv]

5 hours ago, charlie_c67 said:

Looking in a better condition than some real ones that I've seen outside!

Thanks.

Yeah it's not as bad as some out there, I popped by Newark air museum the other week, the one there is developing some new holes..

[zdfgdcv]

Hello Britmodeller,

It's been a while since my last post; since we are in an untypical British Summer there didn't seem much point in taking any further photos owing to the lack of weather....

Having said that, March was the last visit so I thought it time to take a little trip...

 

First, I must point out that on this visit I didn't take the images with my usual lens, in fact these were taken with a much better lens so the images are clearer, but this lens doesn't allow me to get as close as the usual.

 

So the usual overall view is below - the darker areas are where there is a little varnish remaining but as you can see, it is continuing to exit the plane...

 

 

The only thing to report this time around is cosmetic, all plastics were as we last saw them.

As you can see the paint is fading nicely, but what I find interesting here is the leading edge of the tail has lost nearly all of its varnish while it mostly holds on the rest of the tail.

 

 

And while we're on the subject of the tail, take a look at this....

This time around I took the flash with me to light up the normally shadowed area of the tail.

As you can see the Varnish is almost completely intact along with most of the tail decals.  Since this side of the tail escapes the strongest levels on the sun it seems the sun plays a part in destroying the decals.

It's a little harder to judge the paint fade here at this stage, since we are dealing with two light sources (the sun and the flash). Those of you who are familiar with photography will know the differences in the colour balance that can cause (and have in this photo).

 

 

Looking at the wider angle, there does seem to be (at least) some differences in colour tone.

 

 

Here we are in pure sunlight and while it is clear where the varnish is and it isn't, it's interesting if you look closely slightly right of centre - There are areas of varnish and areas of none but also areas of slightly darker paint.

I believe this is where there is the old vanish left from the 1st round of coatings is still just clinging on before I re-applied another layer before sending the Vulcan out to be weathered.

Clearly the first round had bonded/cured better - A lesson to perhaps leave for weeks and weeks before sending out into the weather, should this experiment be repeated.

 

 

The many shades of green around the intakes.

 

 

Not much to report from the nose area, much of the same as previous posts....

 

 

I wonder what that Bird ate, whatever it is they should consider using it to make Varnish because as you can see, it ain't shifting....

 

 

 

 

One conclusion we can draw now is that this is no longer DSG or Dark green scheme, it's defiantly moved a few hues to be sure....

I continue to be impressed with the experiment; it's been sat outside since November 2015 and I'm seeing no sign of paint peel which means the experiment can continue.

 

I've been asked when I might end the experiment; the target is November 2017 but I would like all of the Varnish to let go before I bring her back in so I may let it go through another winter yet...

The main question in terms of endurance is not so much on the Vulcan, but in fact the table/runway.  After over three years in the elements it is looking a lot worst for wear and I'm not talking about the paintwork on the surface.

Below that the table is nothing more than chip-board and the water has got in, its bowing, bending and slowly breaking....  Although you can't really see it here, the weight of the Vulcan is actually bowing the table in the centre...

 

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned.

 

Adam