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Pre-Flight Check
Constructive critique of your finished or in-progress photos.
Hosted by Jim Starkweather
gun and exhaust soot
adam_b
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: July 31, 2013
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Posted: Thursday, August 01, 2013 - 11:05 PM UTC
Hi all,

I'm testing weathering techniques on an old spitfire. I've got some humbrol black weathering powder and its very easy to use.

This is my first attempt and I wondered what you thought? It hasn't come out completely as I'd hoped. I used a stippling method on a small brush.

adam_b
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: July 31, 2013
KitMaker: 10 posts
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Posted: Thursday, August 01, 2013 - 11:12 PM UTC
Hmm I think there's just too much in comparison to this:

http://www.modelaces.com/148_scale_model/spitfire_mk1.php#top1
Jessie_C
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British Columbia, Canada
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Posted: Friday, August 02, 2013 - 04:28 AM UTC
As with everything involved with weathering, it's often a case of 'less is more'. It takes some practise to get the level of grunginess just right. Can you rub it off and try again? One trick with weathering powders is to rub them with a wet finger to smear them out a bit and tone them down. Perhaps that will work?
wychdoctor92394
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California, United States
Joined: July 07, 2013
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Posted: Friday, August 02, 2013 - 08:06 AM UTC

Quoted Text

As with everything involved with weathering, it's often a case of 'less is more'. It takes some practise to get the level of grunginess just right. Can you rub it off and try again? One trick with weathering powders is to rub them with a wet finger to spear them out a bit and tone them down. Perhaps that will work?


Good idea Jessie C. but for my penny's worth, I use the eyebrow pencils (browns and blacks) and eyeliner pencils (browns, blacks, reds, dark blue-blacks, grayish browns) and an artist's stump (which would work on those modeling powders far better than a finger). Those eyliner and brow pencils work on acrylic or enamel paints and you can use a rubber glove (no fingerprints or oils in the powders and paint) to "drybrush" the raised details or gunpowder stains or even oil.... give it a shot. You can get them at almost any dollar store that sells cheap makeup.

WORD OF ADVICE, GUYS:

NEVER EVER TAKE the wife's/significant other's eyeliners to experiment with. You will rue the day you messed with her makeup...
Jessie_C
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British Columbia, Canada
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Posted: Friday, August 02, 2013 - 08:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text

NEVER EVER TAKE the wife's/significant other's eyeliners to experiment with. You will rue the day you messed with her makeup...


Luckily I don't have that problem.

I just use my own
wychdoctor92394
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California, United States
Joined: July 07, 2013
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Posted: Friday, August 02, 2013 - 04:47 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

NEVER EVER TAKE the wife's/significant other's eyeliners to experiment with. You will rue the day you messed with her makeup...


Luckily I don't have that problem.

I just use my own


Nahhhh.... you don't need makeup...
adam_b
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: July 31, 2013
KitMaker: 10 posts
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Posted: Friday, August 02, 2013 - 08:28 PM UTC
Ahh that's a good idea!

Thankfully I could scrub this off so will have another go at being more subtle!
raypalmer
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Ontario, Canada
Joined: March 29, 2010
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Posted: Monday, August 05, 2013 - 11:30 AM UTC
I find pigments much more effective than airbrush. But you've gotta do it in layers. Futuring in between colours. Sometimes I get lazy and just ab black on. Real exhaust stains tend to have greying outlines and brown notes. You can mix all that in using chalk pastels.
andromeda673
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Wisconsin, United States
Joined: July 30, 2013
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Posted: Monday, September 02, 2013 - 03:02 AM UTC
I use Tamiya flat black, shoot that with my air brush, then go back over and through it with Tamiya nato black, the nato black is more like oil and exhaust, and has a touch of a grey tone to it.
Keeperofsouls2099
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Florida, United States
Joined: January 14, 2009
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Posted: Monday, September 02, 2013 - 07:17 AM UTC
I use the rubbing powder and a cue tip

I use the method for exhaust stains as well. Here is one of my earlier works
cinzano
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Indiana, United States
Joined: January 13, 2009
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Posted: Wednesday, January 01, 2014 - 11:55 AM UTC
Gonna throw this out there (actually surprised no one brought this up already). With regards to soot/powder marks etc... from gun barrels: it is merely a modeling affectation. I have literally thousands of aircraft photos. I can't find one the definitively shows soot streaks from weapons fire.

Just sayin'

Cheers,
Fred
Mcleod
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Alberta, Canada
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Posted: Wednesday, January 01, 2014 - 02:28 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Gonna throw this out there (actually surprised no one brought this up already). With regards to soot/powder marks etc... from gun barrels: it is merely a modeling affectation. I have literally thousands of aircraft photos. I can't find one the definitively shows soot streaks from weapons fire.

Just sayin'

Cheers,
Fred


With most aircraft photo's, its very hard to find a clear shot directly of the upper or lower wings. I think if the aircraft was used extensively in action, they would be there.




I'm as guilty as anyone of overdoing it on the gun staining. I believe they do appear, though.
And I also feel a good groundcrew would have a bottle of Windex and a rag in their back pocket.
Jessie_C
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British Columbia, Canada
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Posted: Wednesday, January 01, 2014 - 02:32 PM UTC

Quoted Text

And I also feel a good groundcrew would have a bottle of Windex and a rag in their back pocket.


That depends on how the war was going. If they only had time for a quick turnaround and get the airplanes back in the air, appearance takes a back seat to functionality every time.
Mcleod
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Alberta, Canada
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Posted: Wednesday, January 01, 2014 - 02:42 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

And I also feel a good groundcrew would have a bottle of Windex and a rag in their back pocket.


That depends on how the war was going. If they only had time for a quick turnaround and get the airplanes back in the air, appearance takes a back seat to functionality every time.


Actually, that was just an Alberta hillbilly's twisted day after sense of humor. Hence the smiley. Anyway, gotta go to the meatn.
cinzano
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Indiana, United States
Joined: January 13, 2009
KitMaker: 419 posts
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Posted: Saturday, January 04, 2014 - 09:58 AM UTC
Nice weathered shots. .50 cal must be very sooty. Gonna stick with the less is more approach though, myself.

Thanks for finding those pics for us.

Cheers,
Fred
Arizonakid
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Arizona, United States
Joined: October 03, 2012
KitMaker: 89 posts
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Posted: Sunday, March 16, 2014 - 03:29 PM UTC

Hi everybody:

For doing exhaust/gun soot, I usually use ground pastels or pigments. And for the exhaust I usually use a mix of 2 parts black to 1 part brown, as to me the straight black is just to stark. Although on late war Luftwaffe planes I like a bit more black, and much heavier as they were using some pretty bad mixes of all kinds of things to get fuel to fly with, and they showed some tremendously heavy streaking. For anything with a very dark color (like U.S.N. dark blue) I sometimes like to put a very thin layer (almost can't see it) of white around the edge.

For the guns I usually go fairly light as most countries were using smokeless powder by WWII. But as can be seen in the photos above, there was still an accumulation after enough firing. And some pilots believed that shooting 500 rounds at an enemy was better than shooting only 50 .
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
AUTOMODELER
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New York, United States
Joined: December 04, 2010
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Posted: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - 03:24 AM UTC
If I do try to simulate gun barrel powder exhausts, I prefer to use pastels.

I once asked my wife if I could use some of her eye makeup. You really don't want to read what her answer was. Much easier going to an arts and crafts store, and buying a few pieces of chalk that will last for years. Big box stores like Walmart have a crafts department with private label and off brands at very reasonable prices.

Take a look at some of Terri's work, you'll see her use of weathering chalks, which are 1st rate.

Joel
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