how to weather aircraft decals

[mjlynch71]

I have a question as to how to weather decals on aircraft. I am looking for the dusty old look. Do I hold my airbrush back farther away and spray over them. I have tried a very light dry brushing on tanks and that looks great, but think it might be to much for aircraft. Thanks, Jerod

[LSP_Ray]

Another option is to use masks and paint the markings. Then you can pre-shade, post-shade and weather them just like the paint on the rest of the model.

[mjlynch71]

I would like to use masks but think they are a waste as you can only use them once. Anyone know where you can get ones that you can re-use. Thanks, Jerod

[LSP_Kevin]

I would like to use masks but think they are a waste as you can only use them once. Anyone know where you can get ones that you can re-use. Thanks, Jerod

 

But how many times can you use decals?

 

Kev

[nmayhew]

I would like to use masks but think they are a waste as you can only use them once. Anyone know where you can get ones that you can re-use. Thanks, Jerod

 

uh?

 

as the post below / above (you know what i mean) says, it's not like you can re-use decals!

 

i think this new company AdAstra are going to clean up personally: any (ANY) aircraft / scheme you want - and they will shortly be doing their own decals for fine art / weeny stuff - and they work out same cost or thereabouts as some of the high end decal sheets

 

take a look at AdAstra's site, or indeed elsewhere here on LSP - there are quite a few people who really like their stuff

 

Nick

[Kagemusha]

If you're careful you can use masks more than once, by placing them carefully back on the backing sheet, but I don't think masks are waste, quite the opposite and I fully concure with Nick about AdAstra, take your imagination for a run and model the aircraft you want.

[Butler]

Still there's bound to be some markings that can't be masked easily, or maybe someone is using the kit decals and doesn't want to spend any more on the kit, so I think we shouldn't kill a decent thread by just saying don't do it! Weathering with masks is easy, I want to hear more decal weathering tecniques please!

 

I've tried spraying very (very) thin top coat colour over the decals, then using a fine-grit sanding sponge to take most of it back off. this tends to leave patches of fading around rivets and panel lines which i quite like

[Allok]

I am looking for the dusty old look. Do I hold my airbrush back farther away and spray over them.

Jerod

If you are going to do it this way, (which is, incidentally, the way I do it) the trick is to use really thin paint. You can get as close as you like and weather the markings separately or along with the surrounding paint. Don't over do it, though, as the milky paint always dries lighter.

 

You can either use a light dusty sand colour or just white.

 

Here is an example using this method. Note the weathering is done last using severely thinned white paint.

 

[LSP_Ron]

If you are going to do it this way, (which is, incidentally, the way I do it) the trick is to use really thin paint. You can get as close as you like and weather the markings separately or along with the surrounding paint. Don't over do it, though, as the milky paint always dries lighter.

 

You can either use a light dusty sand colour or just white.

 

 

This is exactly how I do it. Here is a sample with my MDC Typhoon, I used a light gray ( I don't remember what exact color but it doesn't matter) heavily thinned and lightly sprayed over the area. I applied a heavier amount on the wing roundels for sun fade and virtually nothing on the fin flash etc.

 

 

[Shawn M]

I actually scuff mine up a little using a scotchbrite pad, AFTER clear coat to tone them down a touch. Then a light wash for panel lines and chipping where/if applicable.

Airbrushing a lighter color works better, but i dont have one.

[mjlynch71]

Thanks, I used a very light coat of brown, and held the airbrush farther away and it turned out great. Thanks, Jerod