For those of you who have done exhaust/oil stains on the wings of a B-17F in OD/gray paint, how do you paint these? Do you use oils, pastels, airbrush or what? I know that no exhaust comes out of the intercooler vents behind each engine. I also know that exhaust comes out of the superchargers to stain the under-wings and that oil spews out of the engines to stain the upper-wings but what are the best techniques for depicting them. I started by grafting a Revell 1/48 nose on a Monogram 1/48 body. The idea was to use it as a testbed for all of the technique testing you could ever imagine designed to catch me up on all the different things that weren’t around when I quit modeling in 1971 to join the army (I am 73 and returning to the hobby). It is a multi-media build with a full interior with airbrushing, photo-etch, plastic alteration, resin molding, scoring, riveting, vac-u-forming, etc. If you can name a process, I tried it out on this build. It’s been great fun and I’m amazed the model survived. Here are two pictures of the work to date:
It’s been years since I did my last B-17 (the old Monogram -G kit). Back then, I just sprayed highly thinned black through my airbrush to replicate the exhaust and oil stains. I thought it turned out pretty good considering my skill level with the airbrush at the time.
I have the new Eduard kit in my to-build stash for this year, so I’ll likely do something different for the stains. Probably some combination of airbrushing as I did back then but also ground pastels and perhaps some of the AK Interactive weathering stuff.
I’m doing a hybrid of the Revell F nose and the Monogram G body. I started it before the HK’s were available but I am not bothered about the extra work as I’ve learned a lot but I doubt I’ll do this much scratch-building, kit-bashing again. My stash is screaming at me!
For aircraft models I’ve always liked pastel chalks ground up and then applied with a brush. I do this over a light highly thinned coat of Tamiya clear smoke. Afterwards it’s either grey or brownish rust colored pastel chalks depending on my reference photos
Pastels are one thing I haven’t tried yet. It’s probably time. I’ve heard some good things about them. I ordered a bottle of Tamiya Smoke after reading your post. I can’t wait to try it out.
I’ve been using pastels for many years.
If you choose to try it out remember it’s the last thing on the model. I once spent several hours putting it on a M5 Stewart. Then I put a very light coat of dullcote to protect it. Everything was gone as most was picked up by the dullcote.
But once you get the hang of it, you can do cool things.
But you do have to seal the pastels in place with dullcote, right? How does that work?
Nope. Dullcote leaves a rough finish that pastels really stick to. I’ve never had any issues with adhesion. Some issues cleaning it off. I usually use a q-tip dipped in water.
Additionally, most of us displays models so they are not touched too much.
PZIII on the left was assembled 25 years ago (DML kit) you can see it’s still there.
Here is the Tamiya 1/48 PZIII completed with the pastels applied.
Sounds good! Thanks for the info!
I’d also suggest looking for pastels in the scrap booking,art, or craft section of your Hobby Lobby or Michaels store first before paying those higher prices for those “Modeling Pastels”