! Disclaimer ! If something like this has been posted before,
1. I'm sorry, and
2. Thanks for reading mine instead!
In my
very ashort time as a "professional" modeler (i.e., actually trying to make the things look realistic!), my incessent quest to do things as fast as possible has brought me to a great way to paint small radial engines quick, and make them look pretty realistic.
1. Get the parts that will be dark. Cylinder heads mostly.
2. Take a Sharpie pen/marker and cover above parts entirely.
3. Finish off by
lightly drybrush everyting in silver to bring out details.
The gloss black of the Sharpie looks just like grease-stained cylider heads, and the whole thing is pretty much dry once you are finished. There is just a couple drawbacks:
-I've only worked in 1:72 for all my attempts. I don't know how good this will work for our larger scale friends.
-It's best viewed only from ahead. If you decide to open up the sides of the cowl I can't guarentee top quality.
-As I said before, I only have about 5 models under my belt, and none completely finished. So take everyting I say with a grain of salt.
Well there you go. I can't guarentee museum quality success with this method, but it works very good for me.