Am currently building Tamiya's poo-pooei III recon variant of the Dinah.
This is the first Japanese a/c that I've built and alot of references show that the green paint used on the top surfaces tended to weather quite heavily along the panel lines. I want to replicate this but are unsure about what would be the best technique. Any throughts?

Do you mean paint chipping? If so, it is very difficult to get right. You don't want to overdo it or it will look really bad.

The technique that seems to work the best is to paint the aircraft natural metal first, then paint the green. Wait a little while, then take pieces of masking tape and apply to the aircraft until little pieces of paint start to come off. Of course this takes practice and I would recommend a test model before you lay into your Tamiya kit.

Try over at www.hyperscale.com. They have a lot of knowledge and advice there...

Good luck,

Scott

:-) Vihuri,
I'm actually putting off building any Japanese WWII aircraft until I have managed to crack this weathering technique. The method that Scott suggests is a very good idea, because it will look very good, if done correctly. The trouble is it's a bit to random and can pull to much paint off. as Scott says it would take practice. I have thought about using very fine emery paper, 12000 or finer to sand off areas of the top coat. Trouble with this is you run the risk of sanding through the metalic coat as well. This method will also give you feathered edges, which would be wrong (I think?). using masking tape would give you the required edge. You could use liquid mask, before the colour coat, in the areas you want to be devoid of paint but this method doesn't leave the proper edge either. These are my thoughts on the subject, my conclusion is that the masking tape method would be the best, but how do you control the affect? again I've not tried this but rather than use tape as is, I would suggest using small irregular shaped pieces. I would also use ordinary silver paint, as the base coat (because paint doesn't stick to it very well) I would also use Xtracolor paint for the colour coats, as this can take up to a week to completely cure and would (?) pull off relatively easily. The stregth of masking tape is open to question
Again as Scott suggests, practice first. :-)
Do let us know how you get on, I for one will be very interested :-)
Mal

If you can get it, you might try this issue of Fine Scale Modeler:




http://www.finescale.com/fsm/html/issues/2003/2003_2_issue.asp

The latest issue of Fine Scale Modeler has an interesting technique using salt. It's seems strange but I'd like to give it a try. I have only skimmed the article so far so I'm not sure if it works with all types of paints.

...Kevin

Thanks for your ideas - I think doing test shots of the various techniques is definately the way to go. I have also heard of using fine tipped silver ink pens, as well as simply using silver/chrome/aluminium paint, a fine tipped brush and a steady hand!
The masking tape technique sounds good but what about using double sided tape. This would allow you to wrap the tape around a round jewellers file - this might solve some of the control issues.
Final painting is still a couple of weeks off but in the meantime will try some of the techniques suggested
Will keep you posted on the results

P.S - Have just read the review of Academy's 1:32 scale Hornet....where's my VISA card!

As an armor modeler I would like to drop in my two cents..

What I have succesfully used to reproduce paintchipping is rubbercement. The kid of glue where photo are glued to photoalbums. One advantage of this stuff is that when hardened it forms some kind of rubberlike stuff wich can be peeled/rubbed off.
Apply this with a piece of metal or a piece of wood after you have sprayed the silver layer and apply it where you want or where the paint chips at AC`s wait till it becomes the rubberlike stuff and spray over all the other colors needed (camopatterns, single color planes whatever) When all the other layers on top of it are cured you simply rub over the places where the rubbercement (the rubbercement is visible the whole paintprocess through so You don`t have to search for the spots where it`s applied) is added and you`ll see that it comes loose and you can peel it off easily. When peeled off the silver underground will appear only on the places where the rubbercement was.

Another thing I often do is is paint the chips after I have painted the whole vehicle. I take a piece of stiff metal wire or a piece of stretched sprue, a fine brush will do too. And I paint the chips on their place.when that is cured I apply a couple of washes and filters to make the leveling between the different paintlayer a little less evident to almost not visible anymore so the chips wont appear painted on

I hope this was of some help

[quote] :-) Vihuri,
I have thought about using very fine emery paper, 12000 or finer to sand off areas of the top coat. Trouble with this is you run the risk of sanding through the metalic coat as well. This method will also give you feathered edges, which would be wrong (I think?).

Mal, you are correct. The sanding method you describe is very good, if done wet, for replicating paint that has been rubbed off. It looks super, but, again, it is very difficult. I have pulled it off, but it was work!

As to the liquid mask, I have tried this with no success, as similar to using liquid masks for camoflauge, the edges are too hard and stark and the effect seems to look bad to my eyes.

One thing I have been considering - what if you sprayed your kit with Acrylics, and when you prepared your wings/fuselage for paint, after washing the parts you used the oils in your fingers or on your face applied to a small paint brush, and you dabbed on the panels where you wanted the chipping. Then you could try the paint/tape method? What do you think?

I have also seen paint "chipping" applied by dipping a very fine wire in silver paint, then applying it carefully to the edges of panels. A good technique, but again, one that requires a lot of practice and patience... Hmmm, maybe that is why I don't regularly model Japanese Aircraft...

I think the advice to get the new FSM is also good. I haven't read the article but I am keen to try - I just saw it yesterday at the Hobby Store I work at.

Good luck Vihuri, let us know how it goes...Maybe I can use some of your efforts to subtly chip some panels on that gorgeous Tamiya 1/32 A6M5 I have...

Scott

Posted the same question on Hyperscale. Got mostly similar but some interesting responses. Two of the most interesting involved the use of a silver artists pencil and an accompaning link showed photos of this technique used on Tamiya's Gekko - with some quite spectacular results. Definately worth a try. Another response involved a link to an article at www.j-aircraft.com/research/weathering_question.htm. This is an article by Francois P. Weill and discusses the " myth of the inferiority of Japanese paints in WW2". Essentially paint chipping on Japanese a/c during WW2 depended on whether the a/c received a primer coat prior to final painting. Therefore primed a/c showed next to no evidence of paint chipping as opposed to those a/c that weren't primed. It then comes down to the modeller to research as to whether the particular a/c he/she is modelling received primer coats or not. This would determine whether including paint chipping as part of the finish of the model is accurate or not. How a modeller is supposed to find such information is beyond me.
To quote Mr Weill's article -:
- "Producing an accurate and believable replica of a WW2 Japanese plane does not automatically imply systematically simulating heavy paint chipping. If a modeler knows for certain that a factory applied paint job included primer, he should be aware that extensive paint peeling is to be ruled out immediately..........the assertion that Japanese paint was inferior quality is not at all substantiated in available documents or by existing samples of Japanese aircraft skinning. The actual cause for this heavily-worn paint is that during some periods of the war, standard manufacturing procedures omitted the application of primer, leading directly to heavy paint chipping and peeling on many aircraft."

After all this I will continue to test some of the techniques suggested and will keep you posted on the results.

Greets Peeps!

Read through the responses. Now mine.

I am building 1/48 Grace. In Thorpe's book on IJNAF the photos of it, and frequently many other acft (aircraft), show the extreme WXing (weathering). Of course, amny of these are late-war.

I liberally used the tape method to remove the green from the silver undercoat. Along the fuselage under the cockpit, the cowl, and wingroots and inner wings I achieved heavy wear. Then I used picks and fingernails to stratch smaller scrapes. I'll attempt to post photos.

The Osprey book on Japan's aces show IJA and Navy acft. Some, even some Franks, have huge areas stripped bare.

I don't know if Japanese paint was inferior, but it seems that with attrition few of their acft made it to 'middle age', and there seems to be a preponderance of extreme WXing in many photos.

I am building a Tony and plan to use the salt method. I'll let you know how it does for me.

Hi everyone

A week or so ago I gave the FSM salt technique a quick test on a spare vacuform wing. It was quite simple to do and ... wait for it... it worked! It showed a lot of promise. I didn't scrub the salt off (as suggested in the article) because that seemed to risk very non-scale scratches but, otherwise, I would give it the thumbs up and will try it out for real sometime.

All the best

Rowan

i have no clue post when its done

Hi All
I just wanted to mention that using a coat of Future, over the silver base coat, will protect it while scraping
off the JIN green. Future is very tough stuff!