Painting Black Cockpits - Advice Sought

Black then a rub over with a finger dipped in ground pencil lead works for me.

Spray black. Drybrush with a very dark grey, such as RLM66. Once that is dried, paint the instrument panel the required colour. Drybrush the instrument panel with a light shade of grey. Then set to work weathering. I mix some Czechmaster "Stardust" aluminium weathering powder with a grey weathering powder intended for the trackbed on model railway layouts. I stipple this on lightly where the boots of the air and groundcrews would cause wear. Use a relatively stiff brush and blow the loose powder off afterwards. After that, lightly brush your favourite dust coloured weathering powder over the whole lot. Spray with a matt varnish to fix the powder. Then use a thin wash of burnt umber oil paint. Finally, dab gloss varnish onto the instrument faces.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I find that it's worth it.

snipped-for-privacy@thornton3966.freeserve.co.uk wrote in news:1168525054.354762.74780 @i39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

Paint it in various shades of black. Flat black, gloss black, metallic black, very dark grey... all over a primer coat of medium grey or some other dark color. Then occasionally rub through a little bit to show wear or texture.

Then cross your fingers. :)

cd

tried it. cheers for enzo!

Differing shades of black - along with uber washes. Testors Aircraft Interior Black in addition to regular Flat Black make two good base colors; Interior Black is also a very good tire color...more of a pencil lead grey, and with a sligh sheen.

You can also try using variations of flat and gloss clear in places over black - that will also add variation. That worked well in the cockpit of my 1/32 Hunter, in combination with the above.

Hi.

I use a very dark gray (a darkened RLM 66 can work) and than a black wash and highlighting.

I've used the same technique. A true black cockpit is too stark in a model (even 1/32 04 1/24 scale) and, as mentioned, it doesn't allow for any shading.

"Bill Woodier" wrote in news:jPadna3e7-T4ojXYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

NOt only that, in reality it's never found. EVen the most black paint gets worn and faded and scuffed.

cd