Okay kids, here's how I did the NMF on this bird.
First off, let me say that I was looking to do a worn and dull finish on this one. Many of the bare metal aircraft that appeal to me are quite worn and beat up. The polished look of the new birds often times didn't last long unless the aircraft was kept up meticulously.
Anyhoo, I used a combination of the old Monogram/Humbrol Polished Aluminum (buffable) and Testors Silver. (the stuff in the small square jars)
Any panels that you see which appear to be darker than others (wingtips, ailerons, gun access panels, those immediately surrounding the exhausts and a few others) were first painted gloss black for some tonal variation. I then painted the entire aircraft with the Polished Aluminum, masked some panels with Parafilm M here and there and sprayed them lightly with Testors Silver, achieving more varied tones.
To replicate the dull look of the duraluminum finish on the wings, I sprayed over the silver heavily with Testors Dullcote, masking the wing tips and ailerons with Parafilm. I had toyed with the idea of filling in the appropriate panel lines on the wings as per the real deal, but since this was a testbed (this is my first "serious" NMF model) I decided to keep things simple.
The wing tips and ailerons were buffed with a soft cloth both before and after spraying Dullcote on the rest of the wings, as were certain parts of the fuselage.
The fuselage recieved some funky treatment; I masked and sprayed a few panels with Dullcote, with varying degrees of coverage and then went back over almost the entire fuselage with another VERY light coat. I then lightly sanded some areas, re-covering with Dullcote to achieve an aged look.
After some brushed-on Future and application of the decals, I hit it all again in various spots with more Dullcote, never going over the same exact spots as I had before. All this served to provide yet more variation in tone and sheen.
That's where I am now, I have yet to finish it off with my "standard" weathering fare and all, but I'm gettin' there. (I have no "standard" techniques, persay. I do what I do when it occurs to me, I'm kind of a haphazard modeler!)
Fade to Black...
Fade to Black...