i just pulled an old model out and want to “shoot it up” but i’m alittle unsure of how to go about it i’m thinking of drilling little holes in the plane then just painting around the holes but i’m not sure if this will turn out right if anyone has any suggestions i’ll greatly appreciate it thanks for your tips and have a good one
Remember, airframes are made of thin alluminum, not plastic that’s 7 inches thick. You need to get the plastic very thin (from the inside). Then you would drill the holes, but keep them small, unless you want to have it ripped apart via flak. Also, try bulging the plastic inward to make it look like the bullet actually had a bit of kinetic energy, and didn’t just punch out a hole. When you’re satisfied, paint everything as normal, ignoring the damage, then go back with a dull silver, and paint around it (probably with a brush). Then do whatever other weathering you want.
I read this some where dont remember where, if you have a dremel or something close you need find out where you want put the bullet holes. Take the dremel with a steel burr grind from the inside and be careful take off a little at a time and hold it up to the lite until you can see though it about paper thin then punch out with an x-acto knife that should give the wanted presentation you are looking for then just paint and weather.
Smokin’ is right. Remember the hole will not even be close to being round so tear don’t drill. Don’t do them in a line as that just does not happen, keep them random. The article i read, about 20 something years age, had you do what Smokin’ said, then glue little bits of aluminum foil atthe egde to the hole… small and just 1 or 2… to look like tattered sheet metal.
i appreciate the wisdom but the model is already put together,so if i drilled the hole and then used a knike to dig a lop sided hole out.do you think that will suffice?[8]
For what you want to do, here’s what I recommend.
Since your kit is already built, i would drill a small hole in the wing or where ever you want the hole. Then, take a knife blade, and rough up the hole, make it jagged. It doesnt have to be jagged all the way thry, just the top part of the drilled hole. Then paint the inside of the hole black, and then you can drybrush aluminum overtop so it looks like its shot up. This is just something I came up with in my head, I’ve never attempted it, so if this is terrible advice, don’t be afraid to tell me. Good luck!
I just take a pin heat it up over and push it in at an angel. It leaves a jagget semi round hole. also creats small amount of melted plastic that when done correctly can be made to resemble both entry and exit holes.
If I may add that after you’ve thinned the plastic, take your xacto blade and punch a very small hole from the inside( if you want an entrance hole. The opposite for an exit) and then pry up with the very tip thought the hole. That way you’ll get the effect of torn aluminum.
Eddie
Thanks Eddie i knew i forgot something[:D]
Here’s a tip for future reference: if you’re trying to simulate bullet holes or flack damage in a “wet” wing (fuel cells in wing), the skin of the a/c will frequently burst out, not in. This is due to the hydrostatic pressure created by the round entering the fuel tank, which causes an overpressure in the wing and resulting “blowout” of the skin when the round exits. You would normally see this on the top of the wing.
Very good advice from all the above. I have seen many aircraft with battle damage and I can say no two holes are ever the same. A lot of damage depends on the material of the aircraft. Thin metal as mentioned above is jagged, with the hole depending on the size of the round going in. Also with composite material, the hole will be very small going in and very large with chunks torn out where it exits. Canvas material is small holes going in and out unless the round hits a spar or rib than it is a jagged, torn, shredded, hole. Explosive rounds, depending on the size of the round, leave large chunks of torn metal all around the hole, with most of the damage where the explosion exits.
That is the method I have used. [:)]
You can also use the scrap plastic (flash?) found around the pieces in poorly cast models - it’s usually very thin and when used correctly can be made to look like the aluminum skin of the airplane when damaged/shot thru/blown out. etc.
When I was a kid I had a ball with a hot needle, and my perfect line of machine gun bullet holes across the wings, fuselage, etc. Even thought I was being clever and scraping around the edges with my x-acto knife to create jagged looking edges that I then touched up with silver paint to represent the paint being blown off the model. But alas, then I started looking at pics of REAL battle damage and could not find even one single picture of machine gun bullet holes in a straight line. They usually looked more like they had been randomly shot all over the a/c, more like a shotgun at long range.
If only we could have the wisdom of age when we were in our youth . . . .
Shepard Paine wrote a whole article on making convincing bullet holes in one of his how to books. It is very informative. It is in his book How to Build Dioramas. It goes without saying he is one of the best in the buisness. Soulcrusher