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Hi Everyone,
I am ready to start airbrushing my 1/48 PBY. I want to paint it in a Black Cat scheme. Does anyone have any tips on how to break up the blandness of an all black paint job?
Weathering ideas? Anything at all will be greatly appreiciated! Thanks!!
All kinds of ideas! If you do a Google search for PBY Black Cat you'll find several pics of the things in operation and can see just how weathered they got.
A few ideas:
1 - Don't paint it black. Go for something just off black. I'm not sure what paint your using, but something like Model Master Aircraft Interior Black or a 50/50 Vallejo Black and Black Grey would work. That way you can shade it with real black and break things up a bit.
2 - Vary it up by panels and surfaces. Slightly varied shades of black.
3 - Chipping...evident on some Black Cats.
4 - Salt fading. Salt it up and airbrush a very thin dark gray on top. Maybe repeat a few times with different shades of gray. If you've ever had a black car...crud shows up very quickly on them...same principle. And you can see it like crazy on period photos.
On the Bench: 1/32 Trumpeter P-47 | 1/32 Hasegawa Bf 109G | 1/144 Eduard MiG-21MF x2
On Deck: 1/350 HMS Dreadnought
Blog/Completed Builds: doogsmodels.com
Great ideas! Thanks! What do you think about using tamiya black lightened with white for a base coat and then some panel shading with tamiya Nato black?
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thanks for the great pics! very helpful
Expanding on Doog's post, top horizontal surfaces chalk from sunlight, and appear slightly lighter than vertical and bottom surfaces. I make my own off-blacks by adding just a drop or two of white. When the main painting is over, I add a couple of more drops of white, dial the airbrush way down, and do a very thin, semi-transparent coat on top surfaces of wing, stab and fuselage top.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
Nato black is actually a little green. Too green for my tastes when painting something in shades of black/gray. I've found Tamiya Tire Black to be a nice dark gray for some of these things. You can also try varying between gloss, semi-gloss and flat to provide different textures and degrees of weathering.
Good luck, and you know you _have_ to post pics!!
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
G. Beaird,
CrashTestDummy You can also try varying between gloss, semi-gloss and flat to provide different textures and degrees of weathering.
You can also try varying between gloss, semi-gloss and flat to provide different textures and degrees of weathering.
That does work well. I used those three different clear acrylics to help highlight the raised panel lines on a Monogram RF-101B Voodoo that I did in an all black paint job.
Gary
"All you mugs need to get busy building, and post pics!"
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