P-40 Flying Tiger- Weathering

thanks, i'll add flat gray in fading trials. being out of modeling since the early 70's, didn't realize how "intense" scale modeling has become. lots to catch up on! tip of the iceberg with this flying tiger. research, history, color schemes, techniques, tools, resources...amazing stuff! great forum.

I use an airbrush, and mask only the canopy.  Over camouflage I lay on a very thin coat of a very light, flat gray.  I come at model from top, and get top of fuselage, top of wings and horizontal tail surfaces.  Oh, I also mask of the spinner on planes like the P-40 that have prominent spinners (every time the plane is shut down it may rotate to a new portion of the spinner being the top.)

thanks for the input chris ,that probably would have been a better way to go in lieu of what i did which was applying a very diluted white to the overall. i'll try and fool with it on scrap later and compare.

yeah, eye-balling would save a lot of labor but not there yet.

Puu72

I just make a diluted and lightened (I add white or tan) of my original color and spray over it. I do not think that you will need to mask over again as long as you are careful. Many people do their camouflage jobs entirely by 'eye' with no masks at all.

I have never tried it but I would like to try to fade my paint job with pastels one day. I would imagine that some people here have tried this and I would like to hear of their results.

Chris

great tips on washes, thanks! i'll try the "pin filter (wash)" on a Mk.I Spitfire i'm currently finishing.

question on the sun faded effect: how do you apply the highly diluted white and at what dilution? do you brush it on or by AB?

Actually, I guess a "pin filter" is actually called a pin wash!

Pin filters are when you put little dots of varying colors of paint all over the model. Then with a flat brush you streak it in the direction the elements would cause weathering (e.g. downward for vertical surfaces). With the same brush, wet with the appropriate thinner, continue the streaking until just a hint of the filter is visible. On washes I use artist's oils over enamel paints. You want the foundation to be flat paint so the wash will adhere to the area. Gloss is for doing washes into recess lines, etc. For sun faded effect I use a highly diluted white. I guess this is a filter and not a wash, sorry about that.

appreciate your input. i ended up applying a light "mist" of thinned white (10:1) to try and fade out the top colors, then added a black sludge wash, soot, and silver paint chipping to add to the wear. not exactly what i was going for but satisfied with the end results.

what are "pin filters"?

how would you apply the washes for a sun faded effect?

I know this is late, but I would go with pin filters and washes. What did you finally end up doing?