Weathering

It depends on what type of weathering you are talking about. Do you want it to look worn and faded? Do you want it to look dirty? There are several ways to do each.

I want the look of a real plane in my model, like an old, used aircraft.
i dont want a toy like appearance.
in all case all weathering tecniques are welcome

Jeremy

The first thing you need to do is give the paint a worn faded look. If you have already painted it and haven't put on the decals, a drybrushing with the basic colors lightned up a bit would work. I usually add a few drops of white to my top colors and paint using an airbrush.
Worn areas. The areas on the F-4 that showed more wear was the leading edge of the boundry layer ramps, intake lips, leading edges of the wings and vert stab. Also around the left side by the cockpit where the crew chief/maintenance troops would use the boarding ladder or steps. Also the cockpit area, especially the canopy sill and windshield frame.

Dirty areas would be the underside of the fuselage. There is an area just aft of the nose gear well that was rectangular shaped, where the utility hydraulic service points were located. Fluid was always running out of the panel and left a dark streak behind it. The wheel wells also got real dirty. Really dirty up the inside of the main gear doors as the wheel bearings was always throwing grease all over the door. Engine bay panels got dirty streaks all around them. Dirt can be simulated by dry brushing or using a wash.

Hope this helps you some.

for bullet holes, on the inside of the piece, use ur knife to "drill" a hole. then paint the area black and the edges silver. remember to place them in clusters.

Exellent
thanks for you ideas, now my model can look like a combat aicraft

Jeremy

If you are in need of more help, just post your question. With the vast experience of the members on this site, almost any problem can be solved. Happy modeling.

another tip for bullet holes:

thin the plastic on the backside, then push a hot pin through the plastic from the outside where you want the bullet hole. The needle should be hot but not glowing red. If it is too hot it will melt the plastic away.

If the bullet hole goes through a fuselage or wing, hold the pieces together; push the pin into one part and have it come out the other side. This will create an entry and exit wound on the plastic.

What we're missing here is the yellow zinc chromate primer.

For an aircraft like the Phantom, I'd spray an all over coat of yellow zinc chromate. Its a standard metal primer on aircraft. The WWII zinc chromate was green, the postwar stuff is yellow.

If you get up close to some aircraft from the Phantom's era and get a look at the edges of landing gear doors, wing leading edges or any contact point such as hinges between to adjacent painted surfaces, you may see some bright yellow showing through, thats the primer.

Heavily used aircraft may show quite a bit of it. British Phantom's were an excellent example of that. If you do put down the zinc chromate under your main colour coats and find out the paint wear patterns on your aircraft, you can take some very fine sanding film or steel wool and gently rub back the surface color to expose the chromate to the appropriate degree.

A similar method to that was featured a couple of issues ago in FSM in an article about weathering a Helldiver. In that case the method was being use to show wear and paint fading on the tail control surfaces. Going through blue to get at a white undercoat to simulate fading.

The same concept is at work in what I've just described regarding the zinc chromate.

Good luck