Modelers,
I was just reading an article on reproducing the look of jet burner areas and it got me thinking of the look of cast iron exhaust on many piston-powered aircraft. On those with manifolds made of cast iron, they will take on that dark-rust, splotchy look. I try tto use MM metalizers for these ares and usually get good results. But that red-brown blotchiness is hard to do. At least I haven’t found a good way to do it. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
This picture is the best I can come up with to show what I mean. The exhaust in this case is a bit more “dry” looking at the base and the somewhat “wet” look at the end would be more of what I’d be looking for. At least, I think so.
BTW, for those of you who haven’t seen this article http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/tnt1/101-200/tnt126_bare-matal-shading_Brown/tnt126.htm
should really take the time to check it out.
Exhaust systems on aricraft are not cast iron. The problem is that in order to take the beating an exhaust system takes (actually worse on an aircraft than a car) they would have to be very thick and therefore very heavy. and you want to do everything you can to reduce the weight of an aircraft.
Most aircraft exhaust systems are made of a lightweight steel and are welded together (not an easy task with cast Iron). I have been told it’s a type of stainless steel. It will rust but takes much longer than most other steels, needs to be MIG or TIG welded (you can weld it with a torch but the bead is very rough and porous). If you look at the left side of the exhaust stack in the picture, you can see the weld very clearly. BTW, from the grey look inside the stack, the mixture on that engine is almost perfect.
Hmm…just goes to show what I know! [:D] I guess seeing them made me think they were cast iron as with car engines.
In any case, is there a good way to reproduce that look?