Military Illustrated Modeller – September 2019

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 Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2019

Weathering

I wanted my model to depict an aircraft that was long past its glory

days. This meant that aside from typical wear and tear, I also had

to reproduce the effects of longtime storage under the open sky.

I started by spraying a misted application of slightly thinned

AK-Interactive AK2074 ‘Paneliner for White and Winter Camouflage’

over those areas where I intended to create some large stains and more

intense dirt effects.

I airbrushed a misted application of this thinners over chosen and then

painted more or less intense stains and spills, using various enamel

colours.

Next, I distributed the excess enamel in those areas which received the

strongest treatment during the previous step. For this purpose, I took

a cotton bud that had been slightly dampened with white spirit, and

gently rolled it over the surface.

To soften the effects, I sometimes sprayed the surface with ‘Matt Effect

Thinner’ once more at the end of the process.

During the next stage I worked on small areas, in a chaotic and

spontaneous way. One of the main factors that were responsible for

the final result, was the use of Abteilung 502 ABT112 ‘Matt Effect

Thinner’, which allowed to create the effect of oxidized aluminium.

Once the enamels had fully dried, I poured some thinned AK-Interactive

AK082 ‘Engine Grime’ enamel into my airbrush cup, and set the air

pressure to such a low level that only some tiny droplets of paint could

left the nozzle. I then sprayed the chosen areas with the latter.

These droplets were quickly distributed over the surface

with fan-shaped brush, used in a such a motion that it

allowed to create streaks that were perpendicular to

the ground. When reproducing this type of streaking

effects, it is important to pose them perpendicularly to

the ground and not the longitudinal axis of the aircraft,

as in the latter case they won’t look natural. I mention

this as it’s common modeller’s mistake during the

application of rain marks and similar effects.

The above mentioned processes

required using three enamel products:

AK-Interactive’s AK082 ‘Engine Grime’ and

AK2019 ‘Aicraft Engine Oil’, and A.MIG-

1408 ‘Fresh Engine Oil’. I mixed them with

each other and diluted with ABT112 ‘Matt

Effect Thinner’ at different ratios.