I’ll soon be starting a 1/32 F6F Hellcat. As we know, most of these were carrier borne planes. That means plenty of exposure to salty air and sea spray. I’m building a late war model, so the paint scheme is dark sea blue.
I’m thinking that after a few months out to sea, these things weren’t as glossy or as deep blue as fresh-off-the-line birds.
So what would be the best way to replicate this kind of weathering? Paint it the glossy dark sea blue and weather the daylights out of it or maybe paint it a more medium blue with a satin/flat finish and some light grey weathering in the panel lines?
From what I can recall, most of the carrier-borne aircraft tended to stay looking pretty nice, unless the ship had just been through some REALLY bad weather and taken a lot of water over the bow. I would think a satin finish, since that’s toned down from the really glossy sea blue straight out of the jar, and just some very light weathering around the exhausts and such. Remember, these aircraft weren’t wallowing around in clouds of coral dust, etc., like their land bound counterparts.
Something else to bear in mind: Navy plane captains (crew chiefs to USAF types) were proud of their birds and tried to keep them as clean as they could, even under combat conditions. Sometimes a quick wipe-down might be all they had time for, but they did what they could. Except for some oil stains, exhaust and gun port discolorations, I wouldn’t get too carried away with any weathering, except for maybe some fading of the paint color. Even wheel wells (except for maybe some hydraulic fluid stains) stayed pretty clean on board ship.
I may attempt a slightly sun-discolored look on the upper surfaces, but I’m not entirely sure how that’s going to pan out.
Here’s a question for you guys; if the plane took bullet damage, I’m assuming that the panels were replaced/repaired on the ship. So would it make sense to have some panels that were slightly different in color from either being a new panel or freshly painted?
It depends on the degree of damage. Don’t forget, this was WWII and they didn’t have all the new miracle adhesives used on modern combat aircraft repairs. Small bullet and flak holes would have been smoothed out by cutting the adjacent aluminum to a smooth square shape, then an aluminum “flak patch” would have been screwed or riveted over it and painted. This was relatively quick and easy to do, and more importantly, only took one guy to do.
Only if a large part of a panel was damaged beyond this type of repair would it be replaced. That was much more common on bombers and the larger aircraft. If a fighter took the kind of hit that blew out a whole panel or fuselage section, it probably wouldn’t make it back. Much more likely would be a slightly different shade and chipped paint around things like gun access panels in the wings and engine access panels on the cowling.
Thanks for the info, mfsob! I hope I can find some pictures showing that kind of damage/repair work. I know most modelers like to build “cleaner” planes, but I love to build ones that look like they just got back from taking a beating.
The last model I built was a Revell P-61 black widow w/ diorama. I had fresh bullet holes across her wings and fuselage and the crew taking bits and pieces off for repair, working underneath and replacing munitions. Unfortunately, the diorama somehow got crushed in the closet. Otherwise, I’d put up some pictures.
Mike, I’d love to see some pics of the salt spray you did, if you have any.