Just wondering where and what kind of weathering you usually put on your aircraft.
Depends on the aircraft and the theater of operations. I usually use heavy chipping on any Japanese Army aircraft, light chipping and heavy paint fade on Japanese Navy aircraft, heavy panel line and panel shading with Luftwaffe and Allied aircraft with camouflage schemes and much lighter effects on bare metal schemes. For panel lines I use an acrylic sludge wash and for panel shading I’ll use lightened paint airbrushed or pastel chalks rubbed in. Paint chipping for large areas with salt crystals and for small areas silver paint on a dabber.
Think about it…there is heavy chipping around access panels that are opened and closed all the time, (gun bays). Heavy scratches and chipping around fuel caps. Fuel stains, Heavy wear where the pilots and ground crew constantly walk, or grab. If the aircraft is a recip, its oily undernieth. Handprints from ground crew. Smears where oil was wiped off, etc…
Just think about it… Oh, and do your research too. B-52’s were all the time leaking oil through the cowling, and thier tail pipes are NASTY black soot. B1-B, just the opposite, open the cowling, you could eat off of it, exausts same way, no soot at all.
Steve