Weathering and weathering kits

Having never done weathering on a kit before, I'm quickly finding out it looks quite intimidating for me.

There are usually only two mediums I use when weathering my a/c. One is a home brew mix of water soluble wash. This gets put on after decals and a gloss coat and then gets flat coated when dry. The other is some raw umber oil wash that I use on the wheels, gear, and some in the gear wells. This I apply after the flat coat. Any excess is either brushed off or dabbed off with a q-tip with some thinner on it. I use my ab to assist in the drying time of the oil wash by blowing air onto the area washed.  I also apply both in the pit area along with some simple drybrushing but the oil wash is used very very sparingly there.

Works for me, but there are a million ways to do this. Best to experiment on an old scrap kit and find a method that you are comfortable with. My first attempt at a wash I was terrified at ruining a decent finish that I had achieved. After a successful application, I have never looked back.

What colors should I look for general weathering of WW2 aircraft - including for cockpits and wheel wells?

Well, my wash is a dark grey/black color and for dirt and dust the oil is raw umber. The drybrushing depends on the base coat color. If its interior green, a light shade of that is usually what I use so that its not too stark.

You can do a lot of weathering without any specialized kits. I use my normal hobby paint for a lot of my weathering.  You can make washes out of paint. If you have an airbrush you can get very nice translucent effects like exhaust stains on the fuselage.  You can also do exhaust stains with drybrushing but you have to develop the technique with a bit of practice.  Again, I use my regular paints for drybrushing.

Some colors of regular hobby paints that lend themselves to weathering are light tans (dust), rust, silver (for paint chipping) and flat blacks (airbrushing, drybrushing, or wash).  I often add a tint of flat red to rust weathering.

I've noticed the last few years the "weathering" market is getting pretty crowded. Mig, Vallejo, Bragdons, AK interactive, Tamiya and many small companies all offer items such as pigments, washes, inks, etc. As to which of these is best is like asking the age old "Ford or Chevy?"

All of these have origins in products that have been around for many years. Pigments (ground up chalk, dirt, rust), Washes (diluted paints, inks, oils).

We could get into all kinds of debate as to whether or not the commercial products are better than the ones you make on your own. Example: There are claims that pigments significantly outperform ground up chalks. I don't know, I've not used pigments long enough to make a judgment. When I'm dusting on that pigment that came in a $9 jar I sure hope it makes a difference.

There is a huge convenience factor in buying a product that is already prepared for you.

You might also check out train and war gamming forums. These are both heavy users of weathering products.

After a bit of shopping around in Tamiya website, I have come across these weathering master sets. I'm not sure which ones I should get but here goes anyways:

Weathering Master Set A (Sand, Light Sand, Mud)

Weathering Master Set B (Snow, Soot, Rust)

Weathering Master Set C (Orange Rust, Gun Metal, Silver)

Weathering Master Set D (Burnt Blue, Red, Oil Stain)

What areas of the aircraft would any of these sets would highlight for me? (struts, cockpit areas, wheel wells, fuselage, etc..)

I have one of the Tamiya sets.  They work well but are a little tricky to use. The problem with the Tamiya sets for me is that they are almost paste like and difficult to apply.

From what I have learned, and I am no expert on weathering, but there is no one right or wrong answer.    Personally, I like to use oil paints to make a wash.  I have 4 colors, black, white, raw umber and burnt sienna.   With my limited skills, I can get just about anything done that I need to with these colors.  For example, on landing gears and wells, I use a wash of raw umber on the parts to show hydraulic oil leaks and oil/dirt accumulation along joints and details.  It works really well.  You can use a brown or black wash to highlight panel joints depending on how dirty you want your bird to look.  You can get oil paints and terpenoid at your local art store fairly cheap and they will last you a lifetime.

Here is a picture of my F8 Crusader and the main gear wells.  Weathered with oil washes.  I don’t think you will able to get this effect with the Tamiya sets.

i141.photobucket.com/.../012.jpg

For wear, I drybrush some sort of metal color over the area to get the effect of paint being worn down to bare metal.

I also use Tamiya Smoke for oil stains and streaks.  It works really well for me.

For dust and actual dirt (armor and trucks) I do have a a set of powders that I bought to dust things like tires etc.

Just play around and see what you like to use.  

Good luck and have fun!

John

Yes, I have to echo John here. It is very easy to make washes using oils and with a half off coupon that a lot of them offer (Hobby Lobby and such) these oils and turpenoids can be had really cheap. Here is an more extreme raw umber oil wash on a build I just finished.

This was made mixing a small amount of Winsor & Newton raw umber oil paint with an odorless turpenoid. It is very easy to do! 

BTW, that gear bay looks great John, is it resin?

After searching around and looking at different weathering products and techniques, it looks like I'm leaning heavily on the Flory products. Watching youtube clips has convinced me it is the easiest and simplest product to use hands down. Gonna stop by my LHS and see if he can get them for me. Otherwise, I'll have to order them myself. hehehe...

I've never used them but I've heard nothing but good things about them. Many here swear by them!

I used Flory washes for the first time on my last build.  Aside from weathering some HO stuff long, long ago, I too am a weathering newbie.

I was quite impressed with the Flory product(s), and found them as easy to use as their video tutorials suggest. My only problem was that my paint job was rather grainy in some spots (my bad), and the Flory wash didn't want to come off quite as advertised in those spots. But on most of the model, where the underlying paint and glosscoat were smooth and proper, I thought it/they worked like a dream.

+1 for the Flory washes.  Their tutorials and videos are awesome and have helped me get pretty good results out of them.  I'm no expert by any means, but I think their washes give the model some good realism.