Beginning the weathering process on my Lightning.
I started by grinding some black pastel into a powder , dipping a brush into water, then into the black powder to paint on as a thin wash. As I worked over the model, I'd wiped off the excess in the direction of airflow with a paper towel . The first two pics show the results of this wash.
Now for some dry pastels to give the paint a faded look. Reference pics don't show markings such as the Star and Bar with this effect , so I'm assuming they were applied after shipping or were a more durable paint. I'll apply and weather them after giving this bird a good fade.
I would pick up a little of the selected colors with a fine tip eye shadow brush and apply to the center of panels and then using a short bristled ,broad tip eyeshadow brush work in the chalky powder toward the outer edges of the panels. The white pastel really gave the OD a good faded appearance.
Have to handle with care at this phase . The skin oils will surely leave fingerprints . I use a paper towel to hold the model.
I want to create the appearance of where the shipping tape had been removed and cleaned off . Decided to use a wash for what looks like a solvent was used to scrub off tape residue along the panel lines.
The hardest part of this step was choosing the right colors for a very thin wash along the panel lines. Just brush on and let dry. Neatness at this step isn't required, sure doesn't look like it was when they cleaned up the aircraft after shipping.
Next up is to recreate the discoloring from where the sealing tape itself was applied . Then I'll give it a shot of Future in prep for the decals.
After the decals are on and sealed up, I'll applied some light filtering and a final thin wash of black/brown to bring it all together.
Howard