Weathering the Belly

thanks bob! emailing you at once!

Hi Merideth
That P-40 belly is nice but don't forget it is a warbird and ground crews on warbirds try to keep them clean. Wartime a/c didn't get that kind of TLC.
E-mail me direct and I'll send you a wartime photo of a Spitfire's belly. Big difference.
Cheers
Bob S.

bob and pixel thank you SO much for that great info! bob i'll definitely try your technique for oil stains on the bottom...pixel those photos will be a great help thank you so much! finding photos has been impossible...now i'm having trouble figuring out what the landing gear would look like...weathering-wise that is. here's the one photo i found:

You boy have any tips on that part?

as always, thank you so much for your help!

Merr - here's some pics of the belly of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 known as "Black 6," when she was still flying. Hope these can illustrate what people have been talking about.

Oil.....Lots of Oil......Having worked on Cliff Robertson's Mk IX Spitfire for 22 years (1976 - 1998) I can tell you one thing. Lots of oil. Right from the rear of the lower cowl all the way to the heel of the rudder and don't forget the tailwheel, it gets covered in oil. I know this because I used to wipe her down.
Now I am involved with Mike Potter's Mk XVI Spitfire and since the engine has been rebuilt there isn't one drop of oil on her belly. Mike does not do inverted stuff so I do believe that this is the difference. The Mk IX was always dripping oil out of the breather pipes. Jerry Billing flew her and did a full aerobatic routine with her. Combat a/c did aeros and I have pics of WWII Spitfire bellies and they are slathered in oil.
P&W radials such as on the P-47 and F4U go through oil too. I have seen these at airshows and they get covered in oil right down their bellies.
I make oil by starting with clear gloss and adding a few drops of Floquil's Grimy Black. Put some on the scource (panel line, oil cooler, breather pipe, etc.) and streak it back with your paint brush in the direction of air flow and always gravitating to the lowest part of the portion of the a/c that you are applying it to. Do NOT try to blow it around. Remember, when the a/c is sitting on the ground, gravity takes over, but when it is in flight, slipstream takes over. Oil leaks on the side of the cowl ahead of the wing will go up and over the wing following the slipstream just like the exhaust stain.
Cheers
Bob S.

thanks for all the suggestions! and cowboy excellent point on the pacific theatre...i'll keep that in mind when weathering...cuda thanks for replying even though you're far, far away...where it's hot

As 72cuda said fluid stains are good,and the paint chips. But, just remember though. When weathering the belly of any WW2 aircraft the birds in the pacific took a heaver beating than those in the european conflict. In the pacific around the runways they would lay down crushed coral. You can imagine the damage that will do when you start up an engine. And in the pacific you had to deal with corrosion from the salt air. European airstrips consisted of mostly open fields. I hope that this will help in some way.
Greg

The belly is the dirtiest place on the aircraft. . .no one looks down there for the most part and it hardly gets washed like it should. All oils and fluids go in the direction of airflow. . .until the aircraft isn't flying any more, then mean old mr.gravity takes over and they drip down, to be blown back on the next flight.

Don

Hey mer1122;
well Since I work on ole war birds I have a little bit of an advantage then most folks and I hope this will help, around the cowl areas there is alot of oils that will stain the paint on the bottom of the cowlings like engine oil and hydraulic fluids and coolants(on liquid cooled engines) most likely the P-40 will have engine oil & coolant stains at the panel seam lines and aft, also around the engine panels too, so what I do is put drops of thined black & a mixture of yellow & green to match coolant (if needed) around the panel likes an using a dry brush feather the stain the way the air would flow around the cowling, it'll look a little more heaver around the engine areas (also it looks like a heavy dark weathering composed to the rest of the recessed panel line weathering) also the really only weathering that goes on the belly is pretty much just paint chipping, because the paint is not subject to sun fading as much as the tops, just try it out and if it looks good then it is good,
have fun, and build one for me(I can't I'm in Iraq right now)
Cuda

Ugh! That's one of my weakest points too Merideth! I'll put in my two cents even though it might be worth half that. At the VERY LEAST I add the gun powder streaks along the bottom of my WW2 planes. I also add the carbon streaks and chipped paint streaming back from the shell ejection chutes. I hope more people respond to this! Even better...post some pics!