There's a 1945 Group Build on Finescale and I'd like to do an A6M2 dressed for "special attack." Colors are clear: black green over grey. However, after checking a lot of pics and watching the very neat Japanese movie "Eternal Zero" (which is good on tech matters) which ends with an A6M2 crashing into a carrier, makes it pretty clear that many of these older type Zeros serving in training or home defense were very heavily weathered. The movie Zero has major scratching down to the primer pretty much all over.
I was thinking of using AK's "Worn Effects" (a variation on the hairspray technique) chipped down to a very hard metal primer. What I can't figure out is how to do this and also pre and/or post shade the model. Could try to use a silver pencil or make a series of light cuts in the surface and fill in with metal paint, but I think the worn effects would look better. Perhaps prime the model and post shade that and spray the metallic coat over it. Or perhaps emulate the effect with washes, filters etc - in other words forget about shading. Advice most appreciated.
Eric

Hi Eric

The "Worn Effects" should work really nicely - I'm planning to try it myself on just such a scheme.

I find most metal finishes pretty much obliterate pre-shading, so I post-shade with ink or Tamiya Smoke (or similar) thinned so that it's almost like dirty water. Pastel dust works well too.

All the best

Rowan

Yea, I was thinking about that too. I've become very fond of Iwata Com.Art paints that aren't really made for styrene but are great for weathering because many are translucent and they're very easy to manipulate - I've removed the stuff two days after applying. The stuff has a real following in the Railroad community. Anyway, two of the colors are transparent smoke and also transparent blue smoke. I use the stuff for panel lines because in my humble they (especially the minor lines)can be overdone easily - Com.Art leaves a very visible image but it's a little indistinct on thin lines and much clearer on large ones. That's what I see when I look at real warbirds from 50 feet away. But I've got Tamiya smoke and can give that a try too. And one good modeller I know uses pigments for almost all weathering effects on planes and they look very good.
Thanks much.