WIP - 1/48 Revell Corsair - First attempt at weathering

For raised panel lines and stuff like that, there're several ways to do it... It depends on the camouflage used..

For the Monogram/Revell Corsair or any USN carrier-based aircraft in the semi-gloss Dark Sea Blue or the Non-Specular Sea Blue camouflage, I'd probably do a pre-shading job, shooting it all with a light blue-grey... Somewhere in the Testor's ModelMaster Acryllic line of USN Blue-Grey #F505088, or Tamiya FX-23, Sky Blue.. Then I'd shoot it overall Testor's ModelMaster 1917 *FS15042* Dark Sea Blue or 1718 *FS35042*Non-Specular Sea Blue*...  My personal weathering technique for aircraft starts life with a factory-fresh camo paint-job over the "weathering  color(s)".

For your scheme, let's go with FS10542, semi-gloss Dark Sea Blue overall... After the top-coat's paint has cured, but before you start applying any decals, use an alcohol-dipped Q-tip (or even Ultra-fine sandpaper) to remove the dark blue from the raised lines. This'll leave the light blue-grey showing on the lines. CAREFUL! It'll come off quickly and easily.. You don't want to scrape/sand/brush back down to the bare plastic.  Once you see a lighter color there, STOP!

Now you can apply the decals... (We're still at the "factory", right?) Once the decals are all in place, let them dry for a day.  Don't forget to clean up around them... The dried water-drops and extra decal film will affect your finish's appearance there.

Now take your knife (with a fresh blade) or ultra-fine sanding film and scrape off the decal on the lines. Easy on it there, too...  One thing you'll note, there's no "Future" application here, and no "sealer"-coat... Why? Simple.. The finish is already a semi-gloss (hence the number "1" in the first spot of the FS Number) so you don't need a glosscoat if you applied the paint correctly from the rattle-can. No "sealer coat" is used because it simply doesn't work...  "Sealer" or no, that decal will come off stuck to your thumb if you applied a too-thin clearcoat... Too heavy and it runs.. So wait for the final clear coat...

Now you can apply your favorite weathering techniques...

I'm gonna step back a bit and make this bird a High OPTEMPO (OPerational TEMPO) aircraft flying from a carrier during the Korean War...  Before I apply the camouflage color, but after the blue-grey, I'm applying a bit of "Aluminum" paint along the leading edges, cowl, stabs, and various walkways, steps, canopy rails, prop leading edge, etc...  Let this stuff cure COMPLETELY...   Might be two or three days.. (I use Krylon "Silver Foil Metallic" here.)  

Over these "aluminum" areas, I applied a stippled coat of rubber cement. I used a stippling, stabbing motion with both the cap-brush and a worn-out brush of about a #2-size.. Letting it dry, I then shot the camouflage color...  Once the top color is dry, I rub off the rubber cement areas, exposing the "chipped" silver/aluminum underneath... (Someone will chime in about "Salt Weathering" here in a minute..).

For giving a bird that "at sea" look, I generally use pastels in the panel centers,  Pastels are artist's colored chalks (not the colored chalks you give your kids).  I grind them to a powder on a piece of sandpaper and apply them with a red sable brush.  You can mix and match these colors to get the shade you want to apply... Don't buy "Oil Pastels" either.. These are more like crayons than chalk, and won't "powder-up" 

Carefully study the weathered areas on your subject aircraft... Try to get the same period as well... Paints improved through the war years, then levelled off as production runs were cancelled, then fell as the orders fired back up for Korea, and aircraft were coming out of storage in the desert and getting put back inro servce......

Hope this little bit of info can get you started...  And Welcome to the Forum!

Two things to consider.

First - gloss sea blue tended to fade to flat, rather than fade to light. 

Second - carrier vs. land-based...I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but I've read in multiple places that the carrier crews were fanatical about touching up any paint chips to stave off corrosion. So you could have an absolutely filthy, exhaust-and-gun-stained, sun-faded, hideous-looking bird, and still no chipped paint (but probably lots of touch-up areas). Land-based was a completely different story.

welcome to FS!!! thats one good looking corsair. nice work. 

Great advice Hans and Doogs. I bookmarked this thread just for those two posts.

 By accident I found something interesting the other day while that may work too though, I haven't had a chance to intentionally try it in practice.

 I was layering 50/50 thinned coats of gloss black enamel over light gray plastic (an old Tamiya F2A kit) to undercoat Alclad II. When the black dried, I noticed all the panel lines (both raised and inscribed) were accented by the lighter color underneath. It looked very nice actually.

 I'm going to try this with a gloss light gray undercoat and very thinned enamel topcoat on my next Gloss Sea Blue aircraft and see how it works.

Thanks for the Tips and Comments guys, looking forward to trying the preshading technique on my next build.

I'll also have to do some additional research to see what look I should be going for.