Hi all, I decided since i was painting the other 2 exhausts for my B-1B and ive gotten a lot of questions on how i painted them i decided to make a small tutorial.
Admins if this is not the place for this please move it.
Now this tutorial will be mostly writing but i do have step by step pictures.
So without further delay. Lets begin.
I started by giving the exhaust a good base coat in Alclad II dark aluminum both inside and out. I like using Alclad as its laquer so its very tough and i know it wont react to the wash i use.
After the Alclad i mix up some tamiya clear blue thinned 3:1 in favor of the thinner. I find with the clear blue thinner it helps slow the buildup so its more subtle rather than a big blotch of blue. You dont have to use the blue but i find it adds a nice effect. I build up slowly and just eye ball it, dont worry if it comes out too dark, you can always just repaint it silver and try again. I added blue inside one of the exhaust because i want to show more ware on that engine as no engine looks exactly like the other.
You can add other colors too like orange, but in my opinion i would probably on think about doing that on a 1:32. So since these are 1:48 i thought just blue was fine and it would show up better.
After the blue has dried were gonna give it a wash. I make my own wash out of artist oil paint and mineral spirits. (another good reason to use alclad or a acrylic based paint as the mineral spirits react to enamel paint) I eyeballed the consistancy of mine but i wanted to be a little thicker than usual so it would stick better and give more coverage. After a few applications i let it dry.
One last thing to add youll notice around the guide wring its very dark. I kept laying a thick bead wash on there as it gets a lot of soot and grime stuck to it a lot.
After i let the wash dry i gave it a good coat of laquer flat coat. The flat coat tones everything down and also will allow the final step to be a lot easier which is pigments. I shaved some black chalk pastels that i got from Hobby Lobby (you dont have to use these its just what i chose to use.) and just went at it adding the pigment all over.
The inside you can be a bit more creative with how much you add in certain spots for instance like if you wanted to add scortch marks or maybe some tan pigments for sand that might have gotten inside like i did on my F-14 here.
Well thats all folks. I hoped you guys liked this tutorial and found it helpful.
If you have anymore questions feel free to ask and i can get more specific with some steps if need be.
Thanks for reading
