Weathering Decals

[Chip B.]

Greets,

My 1/32 Hellcat F6F 5 (Hasagawa) is almost done, but I've got a battle weary veteran fighter aircraft with WHITE markings. Almost comical. I attempted using a black wash, but it looks like a WHITE star with black wash all over it. At least I thought to brush (softly and lovingly, naturally) in the direction of airflow. Didn't do much for the believability of the kit.

Has anyone some really interesting techniques? I read with great interest the builder who used 3500 polishing (sanding?) paper/cloth. I've already sealed the decals with a coat of Pledge so as much as I would love to try what I read about, it is too late in the build to apply it to this project. BTW, is anyone familiar with the sanding technique? There are apparently a several additional steps.

Any suggestions, other than softly and lovingly brushing black wash in the direction of airflow, will be greatly appreciated.
cb

 

[Wayne Little]

You could try mixing a small amount of light grey or tan in your gloss or matt clear to give it a slight tint and very carefully spraying some very light coats across the white decals to help tone down the white, you need to be very subtle and build up slowly and carefully as you can also go too far....if either helps you could expand the effect across more of your bird to be more uniform.....maybe experiment with something else to see what light colour could do the job?

 

[Chip B.]

A very good plan, thanks Wayne. I can proceed, but am wary of any technique which has the potential to be irreversible. Should my ham-fisted attempt at airbrushing in a subtle fashion result in something other than what I had intended, any form of repair would be far beyond my skill-set!

But I must say, your idea is very intriguing. I've read somewhere of misting Buff as a way to tone down base color. I am only just beginning to understand concepts involving manipulation of tones and filters. They are easy enough to understand empirically, but actually putting aerosoled paint on top of paint is for me a skill that I need to develop by doing, not just by reading. And certainly to be done on a project not intended for imminent donation!

I hope to find here photos of builds employing these techniques in order to firm up in this muddled and often distracted head of .... isn't a grilled cheese sandwich a good idea for lunch?

Where was I?

 

[mikewint]

The key to what Wayne suggests is to DILUTE your colors. Turn down the volume of spray to a minimum. One or two quick coats and evaluate. You can always spray more but you can't un-spray. LESS is MORE

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's the result of the technique described by Wayne on my P-40. A highly thinned coat of a light dusty brown was sprayed about 6 inches away from the model and built up very gradually. A bit of coloured pencil was applied on the panel lines.

 

[Chip B.]

A very believable result. Would you have considered pencilling the panel line through the center of the roundel? I've the glaring white star on the port wing with a panel line right through it. Despite copious amounts of Micro Sol I cannot get the decal to sit down into the panel line. I thought perhaps a Gundham pen maybe.

What are your thoughts, Hobson?

 

[Wurger]

If a decal marking doesn't want to sit down into the panel lines again a toothpick or a needle with a thin and rounded ending is useful. Usually it is enough to run slightly the tool along the panel lines there with a small angle trying to press the decal in the lines. However I would suggest making a test with separate parts in order to accumulate more experience and pratcice. .

 

[Crimea_River]

The one line through the rounded is the gun access panel. I tend to highlight those as they are often removed and would tend to get dirty. The other line is not normally one that I would highlight with a pen as I tend to favour a more subtle look. That said, the decal did not settle into the line well and I would normally slit the decal with a scalpel and apply setting solution. Looks like I missed that here.

 

[mikewint]

As Andy stated above. Decals are funny critters and there is a lot of variation in thickness, age and dryness also play a role. A thickish decal and a deep panel line will tend to bridge over. If numerous applications of -SOL have not melted it in then as Andy stated cut it down the center with a SHARP X-acto/scalpel blade and then apply -SET to get it to drop into the groove and stick.
I do my panel lines with a 0.5mm drafting pencil. Flatten to a chisel point. The graphite is dark and the bit of shine helps to "bring out" the panel line. It also has that greasy/dirty look

 

[Chip B.]

Thanks gents. I thought of slitting and Sol, my concern is if the decal does not close and a dark line goes through the star. Am I mistaken?

 

[Crimea_River]

That is a risk but the dark line can look ok if its subtle. If not you can always carefully run a thin wash of off-white in the recess to tone it down.

 

[Chip B.]

Clever, Crim. Wish I'd considered this before being less than a week from delivery!

Thank you, Gents.