Weathering Airliners

[Scotsman07]

Hello

 

I recently purchased some grey through to black pastels and weathering powders which I intend on having a go at grime and weathering effects on my Airliners. I’m not sure what’s the best technique to this.

 

My other concern is how I ‘seal’ in the pastels and weathering once it’s in the finished model without it smudging or transferring to areas that I don’t intend it to. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Regards,

 

Alistair

[Troy Smith]

53 minutes ago, Scotsman07 said:

My other concern is how I ‘seal’ in the pastels and weathering once it’s in the finished model without it smudging or transferring to areas that I don’t intend it to. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. 

you may not need too, my brief experience with chalk pastels showed they didn't easily come off a matt varnished surface,  even with a damp microfibre cloth, and unless you handle a model a lot, i'd be surprised if it smudged.

You may need to look at other areas of modelling,  and see what they use, the armour folks use these a lot, if you do need to seal them, mist on varnish.

1 hour ago, Scotsman07 said:

I recently purchased some grey through to black pastels and weathering powders which I intend on having a go at grime and weathering effects on my Airliners. I’m not sure what’s the best technique to this.

for pastels, you can sand them on sandpaper,  and/or scrape some into a container,  to mix up colours and apply using a cut down, old stiff brush, scrubbed on.   

the exhaust stains on this are a dark mix stippled on, and then  a light mix  over that.  build it up slowly.   I also used pale grey scrubbed onto the parts of the airframe that are fabric covered (outer wings and rear fuselage) as they faded faster than the metal parts, not done brilliantly, you can see pale chalk marks of the L1592,  I over did it and used a damp cloth, but it did fade down the markings.   The pastel chalks are not fixed with anything, 

 

the oil stains are artists oils. black and burnt umber mixed neat, a tiny amount, and then a brush dampened with lighter fuel to pick it up, and then streaked back, using lighter fuel,  over the matt varnish.  

the panel line wash is also very thin oil paint diluted with lighter fuel, and then scrubbed off with a brush wetted with lighter fuel.  It's very volatile, very thin and evaporates really fast, this was over the gloss coat, before the matt coat.

whole build here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052380-hurricane-airfix-72nd-fabric-wing-mki-oob/page/3/

which has a few more photos of the real thing, showing exhaust stain patterns and how/why they happen. 

 

one thing, study photos of the subject very carefully,  observe the way streaks and grime appear, and how airflow and gravity affect them,  if you find models that are correctly weathered, see how they builders achieved the result.   As with anything,  test on scrap first. 

 

One final point,  if the techniques and materials  used get a result you are happy with, it's the 'right' technique.   

 

There are fashions and trends in modelling,  and you see models built with reference to other models,  which follow fashion,  and are often superbly crafted,  but are not a good representation of what is being modelled... 

 

A Battle of Britain Spitfire that may have lasted 3 week will not have time to get chipped and faded,  aeroplanes don't work well when dirty, and are regularly cleaned and maintained etc,  which is where research and study of the subject come in.

 

Others will know more on the specifics of airliners,  and may have better answers.

 

HTH

 

[nheather]

But airliners are not matt - they are either glossy or satin depending on the scale.  Not sure pastels will grip so hard on that.

 

Maybe it needs to be sealed with a clear coat, satin or gloss to suit.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Scotsman07]

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

you may not need too, my brief experience with chalk pastels showed they didn't easily come off a matt varnished surface,  even with a damp microfibre cloth, and unless you handle a model a lot, i'd be surprised if it smudged.

You may need to look at other areas of modelling,  and see what they use, the armour folks use these a lot, if you do need to seal them, mist on varnish.

That is an excellent model. I love all the attention to detail and how the weathering brings it even more to life. My only worry with Airliners is that they are glossy/satin and not sure how well the pastels would adhere to the surface and then what would need to be applied over the top without it being spoilt, so to speak.

 

I totally agree about the studying of reference material, as Airliners generally don’t get too dirty, only really the undersides, wings and streaks across/down the windows. 
 

Regards,

 

Alistair

Edited January 24, 2020 by Scotsman07

[Troy Smith]

37 minutes ago, nheather said:

But airliners are not matt - they are either glossy or satin depending on the scale.  Not sure pastels will grip so hard on that.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Scotsman07 said:

My only worry with Airliners is that they are glossy/satin and not sure how well the pastels would adhere to the surface and then what would need to be applied over the top without it being spoilt, so to speak.

 

good points, and from this a thought occurred,  that perhaps careful use of matt varnish where you want streaking to adhere could be way to achieve this, as the pastels would stick on the matter finished areas, and less on glossier parts.   Not something I have tried, so merely a suggestion.

 

@Scotsman07,  if you use the edit facility you can edit out my post you quoted, saves unneeded repetition of photos/text is all.