Happy Easter, everyone! I am just enjoying the latter stages of constructing one of Wingnut Wings’ LVG CV.1 German two seaters. I have used Testor’s spray Gloss cote on the wood grained effect ( oil paints ) fuselage over the decals, and I really like the look. However, for the wings, with all that lozenge camouflage decaling, I was thinking of using Testors’ spray Dullcote, just to “tone down” the shine on the model, and give it a little “in the field” used look. ( I had already sprayed Gloss cote on the bare grey plastic of the wings, to give a good base for the decals to adhere to ). Would this be realistic to retain the shine of the wooden fuselage, and yet have a relatively flat finish on the wings, and possibly the undercarriage and wheels as well, or should the entire model either be gloss or flat? ( I don’t use an airbrush, and so rely on spray can paint ) Thanks in advance for any advice / suggestions you can give me. Cheers! Gordon
It is a matter of personal prefernce but I like to have the same type of weathering on all the different parts. Either it is a factory fresh aircraft or a used one.
Can’t speak for the LVG, but the Pup I’m building, the archive photos in the WnW manual show a trend toward dirty/flat fuselages, but there’s an image of the particular plane I’m building - Black Arrow - that show’s it flipped on its back, and the underside of the wings are rather shiny. Not completely glossy, but certainly tending that way.
WW1 aircraft were coated with several coats of gloss lacquer and very few ever lasted long enough to get too weathered. Although I love a flat finished bird, it is not what they looked like.
I’ve got a few pics that show otherwise…but yeah for the most part an aircraft’s lifespan was measured in days or weeks.
It’s a lot of work to get a gloss finish on a fabric surface, hand rubbing and all that. A satin finish is what you will normally see on new fabric.