Advice on pre/post shading a heavy weather A6M2 Kamikaze

Stik: that's one of the pics that led me to believe the uber-weathered A6M2 portrayed in the very neat Japanese movie "Eternal Zero" (you can see bits of it on YouTube - I bought the disc online and was very impressed with its CGI and real faux Zeros: bit sentimental like a lot of Japanese films but a huge hit in Japan and worth a watch by any WWII aircraft fan.) Nick Millman of Japan Aircraft claims the M2 was built by Nakajima until 1944. He also claims most photos show only moderate wear - it's possible modelers overdo weathering on IJ planes, but photos like yours are not hard to find. There certainly would have been a lot of new or low use planes around - any plane that saw serious service had a very short lifespan. But, as in so many other fields, I think history certainly allows extreme weathering as a valid choice - it also allows a freshly arrived plane ready for its first mission.

I haven't checked Doog's site lately, but he's a splendid modeller. I liked it when he was on this list, but I can understand why he went solo. He's upped the ante on scale - 1/32 fighters, even a 1/16 tank. Might make sense for a hard core modeller like him (who probably has a good place for a big display case) but I'm perfectly satisfied with 1/48 for WWII fighters and 1/32 for WWI. But there's much to learn on his site. Actually if you look at some of the photos of planes flown by pilots like Ike Kepford (Jolly Rogers I think) who flew off the coral strip at Munda Point Doog could have weathered the craft even more. Coral dust, I was told by pilots who flew there, was like sandpaper and no friend to tidy aircraft.

Eric

Give this a good study.

http://doogsmodels.com/2014/11/08/painting-tamiyas-132-f4u-1-corsair/

A6M2 production ended in 1942, so any surviving ones would be quite "war weary" by the time of the Special Attack Squadrons of late 1944 thru VJ day. 

Here is a shot of one (note the cowl chin scoop profile) taking off for its' final sortie, and the wear is quite obvious, especially around the wing root, cockpit and engine cowling. I would say to not go lightly on however your choose to represent such wear.

AK's "Worn Effects" functions exactly like hairspray. I still may try it. I've got some humble 1/72 fighters around - might build a couple and try all suggestions given. Thanks again.

Salt works very well. Spray silver paint and let it dry. Then use tap water and a brush to wet areas to show chipping. Sprinkle salt and let it dry, the water will make the salt stick. At this point you can remove any unwanted grains with a toothpick to "fine tune" your patterns.  Top coat and let it dry. Then gently rub off the salt which will produce additional streaks and scratches. Works out really well. Click on the picture to get a closer look. Visible are jagged edges and discoloration.

Have you considered the hairspray method?  Someone just posted a SBD (?) I think, where he'd used that for chipping. 

I have also use a pencil (worked great) or little bits of paint applied with a stretched out scotch-brite scouring pad (be careful), even Tamiya weathering kits (so-so), but that was all on 1/48 builds with not a lot of wear.  What scale are you doing and how much metal do you want showing?

Groot

Thanks gents. I'll try both methods on one of my medical experiment kits.

Eric

Any of those methods should work for chipped paint.  Also, flat aluminum makes good chipped paint. I apply it with the tip of one of those sharp ended toothpicks so it makes a tiny dot.  If you drag it a bit it makes a bigger "chip."