"Fading" decals

[GVINCENT]

I was wondering how you guys "fade" the decals to get that worn look. I can weather the paint job but not the decals. I would really like to learn that trick!

 

Thanks,

 

Gary V.

[Gene]

Hi Gary,

Guess there are as many ways as there are to skin a cat, but for what its worth here is something I tried.

 

It was an experiment for me, but the result was interesting. I mixed some light grey pastel powder (collected by rubbing the chalk color of choice on some very rough paper) in with the Flat Clear Lacquer and oversprayed some areas in the hopes of creating an overall lightening of an area. I was spraying enamels, but a similar technique could be applied to acrylics.

 

The ‘bleached’ wing with the insignia was of particular concern to me. Here is a comparison of the decal on the wing with this mix oversprayed and the fresh kit decal:

[Juggernut]

A similiar effect can be achieved by taking some very light grey paint, thinning it almost to water and spraying over the decals very gently and subtle. The effect is very good. Does take practice though as it's not hard to overdue and it's very hard to undue.

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

What i do is:

 

I use a light grey (white mixed down with a few drops black) and spray over, for example, white decals to make them look dirty and older. But it works for all other decals too. Blue, red yellow a.s.o. If there are panel lines under the decal, i use since my last model, a mix of 90% FUTURE + 5% brown + 5% black to shade them. (Thanks to Jamie "Haggis" for this tip. Works excelent! )

 

For me it´s the easyest way, as i´m a lazy freak and don´t have the patient to rubbing off pastels.

Hope this helps...

 

 

Cheers,

Chris