Simulating Piston Engine Exhaust Stains

Folks,

How do you simulate the exhaust stains of piston engines? I tried today to dry-brush it (my first attempt at any kind of weathering), and it came out looking like crap. The kit is the 1/48th AMT Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat, and all of my references show heavy exhaust stains all over the engine nacelles. I thought that I’d try to simulate that, but soon discovered that I was in WAAAYYY over my head. I guess that I’ll make this my new experiment-with-new-techniques model. Anyway, is airbrushing the way to go with this, or did I just dry-brush it incorrectly?

Why use paint at all? You can use pastel chalk’s (not oil based) of black, brown’s and yellow to get that “dusty” smudged exhaust look. Check out the tail pipe on your car (especially if it’s an old heap like mine) for reference. Charcoal grounds wil work for black, fireplace ashes for grey-brown.
G.L.

glweeks,

Thanks! I had never thought about stuff other than paint. Good thing this website is here…

Also check out “The Basics of Weathering” on my site - covers using Tamiya smoke and chalks for exhaust stains and gun blast marks.

Will Do, Swanny.

Wow! Great site Swanny (or maybe it should be Swammy [;)]) Lots of great tips there - I have it bookmarked. Thanks for all the work of putting that site together. I’ll be referring there often from now on.

Rich [8D]

Pastels here. I’ve found nothing else to be as flexible or forgiving.

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