Thanks, Louis and Colin.
The chipping has been interesting. I had a conversation with George about ‘realism’ of weathering and chipping on his thread.
If we build a plane to make it look entirely realistic it is a very difficult undertaking. I looked at the photos I have posted here, and many others, to see where chipping occurred. It doesn’t make for a very ‘pretty’ looking model.
Given that there is huge controversy around the depiction of Kamikaze in our time, it was a deliberate decision not to make a clean ‘romantic‘ looking plane. The plane somewhat mirrors the deeds. I think some of the planes used were fairly battered and dispensable, but there are arguments to be had about that too, that are not really for here. This is my take.
Colin, you are spot on - I think when we make the decision to really mess a subject up we have to be ready to be patient and let the subject take us in different directions. Your worry about ‘stark’ finishes really chimes with me. The camera does lie when we look at these old snaps. Something to do with dynamic range I would think. Cameras, while much better, cannot even now in 2020 capture a full range of tones. So without expert darkroom work, highlights and shadows on old photos can be an issue.
I’m certainly no expert but when I look at this picture:
I guess the wing root chipping is ‘blown out’ as ‘highlights’ by the camera and looks too shiny, with little detail (especially given it’s an old photo too).
So I am going for something that ‘interprets’ the chipping and fading seen in these photos:
where the chipping seems much more blended and the metal more oxidised. Add to that the fact the different chips may well be of slightly different ages and that can be another consideration.
The chipping fluid left stark areas of ‘airframe aluminium - Alclad 2’, and rough chips with palpable layers and edges. So I did the following:
- Used fine wet sanding to level the layers.
- Used pastels (greys) to decrease the shine and get closer to an ‘oxidised’ dirty look on the large metal areas.
- Deliberately finished different chips in different tones.
- Went slowly with the top coats to try to find a sweet spot with their effects as they darkened and dulled down the painted colours.
That last point has been the most difficult. As the top coats went on, the fading of the yellow and green began to be lost, so I used some pastels between coats. Those top coats were also useful in blending the chips. I wanted to hang onto the preshading and to wash out the yellow. I also sponge-chipped and used a toothpick to put in some of the panel line chipping. And of course I am still not convinced.
In this case the model links to the film ‘For those we love’ and is a bit of a conflation of effects from a number of planes as you can see. It didn’t take one historical subject (probably a good thing given the way we cede some control when chipping - at least I do).
I stand back from this now and have got to the stage where I need to leave it alone and stop fiddling. Not totally satisfied with the output, but happy with the learning!
I claim no technical expertise, but these more recent photos, albeit not from planes, are food for thought:
And a couple from the ‘millions‘ you can find from aircraft:
