Airfix 1/48 Defiant weathering effect - advice sought please.

[Rickoshea52]

I have an Airfix 1/48 Defiant NF on the bench, while looking for advice on painting it black I found a thread on BM that showed a Defiant with chipped/faded black with what looked like the previous RAF green/dark earth coat underneath - is this a plausible paint effect on the real thing?

 

If so, would the following painting and weathering steps achieve this effect?

 

Primer

Silver/aluminium

Chipping medium in very targeted locations - wing roots, cockpit and turret surround, engine cowl. 

Camouflage pattern - RAF green & dark earth

Chipping medium in more general locations - wing surfaces and underside. 

Night black

Remove chipping medium

Gloss coat

Decal

Gloss coat

Panel line wash/wash

Matt coat

Weathering powder

Final coat

 

TIA

 

Rick

[Troy Smith]

15 minutes ago, Rickoshea52 said:

I found a thread on BM that showed a Defiant with chipped/faded black with what looked like the previous RAF green/dark earth coat underneath - is this a plausible paint effect on the real thing?

not really.

What did happen was there was a very matt paint, RDM2, which was applied over the Night applied first, this did weather and chalk badly.

this thread

has some discussion of this, along with a link too a camouflage monograph on the Defiant. 

 

Be wary of looking at models.  

I didn't know of any colour defiant photos, or of RDM2 either.  

this is a link to WW2 Lancaster photos. which may help in how Night weathers,  

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=8270787%40N07&view_all=1&text=lancaster

also this 

HTH

[85sqn]

The method you have of painting the aircraft all the way through is correct though and all in the right order if you wanted to pursue that avenue. I believe some of the examples of people modelling have been based on some well known photos of JT-S, N1744 which was a very worn looking RDM2a with a chalky finish. If you can get a copy of the boulton paul defiant by Richard Franks it has some examples of those photos.