And all of a sudden there is a great correlation between my railway modelling and my aircraft modelling!
When weathering a steam locomotive, you can't just bung muck and stuff thither and yon. You have to do a bit of research into where there were steam and/or water leaks on the prototype, what sort of water (hard or soft) was used in the area of operations and even how efficient the cleaning crew were at the shed.
It is obviously the same way with these aircraft. I'm going to have to do a bit of research into which panels were removed most. Like I said, it's great fun! :-D
"20% color variance"? Good heavens! With that sort of variety, no one can really be proved either right or wrong. As most people in this thread have been saying "if it looks right, then it *is* right!"
Does that mean that the aircraft are pretty much pristine at the start of the deployment? I would imagine that they would all go through either a major or minor servicing before a deployment. Is it possible to gauge how long a carrier has been on deployment by the state of their jets? ;-)
Today, I tried spraying some panels different colours. I spent ages masking them off then gave them a light overspray of Light Aircraft Grey. Shortly afterwards I gave them a lighter overspray of the original Light Gull Grey in an attempt to restore some of the brown hue.
I was amazed at the results. The effect is very subtle, but all of a sudden the paint scheme has come to life. I've never been a devotee of flooding the panel lines with darker colours, as that just doesn't seem to be realistic to me. This technique seems far better. Tomorrow I am going to mask off some other panels and try spraying those with a lighter grey, say FS36622.
I also noted that the LAG has a different gloss finish to the LGG, so that is something else I will try. After everything has been completed, I will spray the whole aircraft in a satin finish then mask off some random panels and spray them with matt varnish.
The next step is to attempt to get some of the grunge and grim effect. I generally am not a big fan of the stark black panel lines either. Especially on a pristine model. It just does not look right to me. Sometimes highlighting a few panels lines with a slightly darker color works well.
But usually on a well used aircraft, especially the new very none glossy tactical jets, they tend to show areas where hydraulic fluids, fuel and other liquids have seeped out of actuators and joints, then been blown aft as the aircraft flies. Then the sticky fluids attract dirt and turn dark.
Being able to do this on a model is almost another art form in itself. Usually you see a lot of "weathered" models that just don't look right. If you start looking at photos of these birds with an eye toward the subtitle weathering you start to pick up patterns. One of the things I often see on models that usually does not look right is the fact that the modeler weathered a lot of it in the vertical. That looks like most of the weathering occurred while the A/C was sitting still on the ground. While I am sure some of it occurs then, most of the really visible streaks and stains are from front to back. A good example would be the wing top surfaces of the F/A-18 series. Many pictures show soft smudges and streaks that start at the trailing edges of the leading edge flaps and the leading edge of the flaps and aileron. This is because the actuators often leak fluids and the slipstream picks it up and blows it aft.
I think the best advice on weathering is when it really starts to look good-quit. Don't do that extra little bit. Also step back and look at the whole thing as you are working on it. It is easy to get into each little panel detail to the point where the whole thing appears too much.
I'm used to weathering from my railway modelling. The difference is that the weathering on a railway engine *should* be done in the vertical. One lesson I learned early on is that you should always stop weathering just before you think you are done. It is very easy to do just that little bit too much.
I have a number of pictures of F-4s in flight banking away from the camera. I'm simply going to attempt to replicate what I see on those pictures. The belly of an F-4 seemed to get *particularly* filthy. One oddity is that the outer skin of the wingbox structure always looks a lot cleaner than the rest of the belly.
With the last few models that I have built, I have attempted to move out of my comfort zone and try some new techniques. I am detailing cockpits using more scratchbuilt parts rather than simply bunging in a resin cockpit. I am doing more weathering than I used to. I've started using Kleer (aka Future) as a varnish...
And I have to say, I'm enjoying my modelling far more these days.
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