Painting / weathering sequence

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

I’ve been doing some research on painting and weathering aircraft and this seems to be the average procedure:

  1. clean model before painting
  2. depending on the paint, prime
  3. Paint base coat and any camo overcoats
  4. Coat with future
  5. apply decals
  6. future again
  7. use washes and/or pastels to weather
  8. Future again
  9. Dull Coat

My question is about #4. Is one coat of future enough or should I spray it a second time. I’ve already applied one coat and let it dry for several days, but it doesn’t have that shinny, wet look that tells you the surface is really slick and ready for decals. I haven’t done this in a while, my memory needs to be refreshed.

Thanks for your help.[:)]

2

Give it another coat.

You want the surface as smooth as possible before you apply decals.

If it’s still not shiny and smooth, try dropping the air pressure a little.

Karl

3

I don’t see the need for Step 8. Once I weather I go directly to the dullcoat unless I want a gloss surface then I’ll either use glosscote or another coat of Future.

4

I agree with Karl about getting a good gloss coat in step 4 and with John about skipping the gloss coat in step 8. One thing that I would add is that pastels don’t stick well to gloss coats, so after any washes, I would put on a flat coat, then I would use pastels, and a final flat coat to seal everything.

5

Also agree about 4 and 8. And pastels need to be over a flat coat. Unless that model will be handled, it is unlikely the pastel will come off if thoughly ground into the surface. A flat coat over pastels tend to lighten the effect so you will have to over do it and hope it lightens the right amount to get you intended end result. I always use pastels and never coat them when done.

EDIT: I just looked at the first post again, at the order of teps and want to just clarify soemthing. I use pastels to make a wash for the panel lines and base weathering. and that is done a #7 as in the list and thsi does get sealed. The last thing done, for me anyway[;)] is exhaust, gun blast, fuel/oil drips and some panel discoloing… after the last flat coat.