One More Question on the P-38 Night Fighter Gloss Black Finish

'Cept for some staining around the turbosupercharger exhausts, it doesn't seem to have weathered much at all.

The photos of the F-82G "Twin Mustang" nightfighters seem to show a similar lack of weathering on the gloss black finish.

The P-38Ms really weren't in operational service long enough to accumulate much weathering.

Cheers,

These finishes weather more than flats, the effects are more noticable.. Sunlight is one of the strongest weathering agents, and sunlight hits parked aircraft mostly on top. I weather these by spraying with an airbrush a grey flat finish, highlighting the top of wing, horizontal tail surfaces and upper fuselage areas. You must adjust airbrush way down so you are just misting on this coat. A less severe weathering is done by just airbrushing dullcoat on the same surfaces.

And P 70's wore flat black....

Which in the few color photo's I've got seemed to weather fairly well.

The areas exposed to most sunlight, usually the upper surfaces, would appear rather semi-gloss than gloss due to the effects of the sun. You might also try cutting the black in these areas with a little gray to visually highlight this effect.

That's a fact. We have a full scale AV8A on a pole in front of the MAD that was high gloss when installed. By the end of the summer it was flatter than flat...I mean DEAD flat. I wish I could get my models that flat - flat.

I'm sure the sun worked on the top - high desert wind and sand took care of the bottom.