First
of all, find documentation to support the finishing detail of your
model. Replicating a full size airplane is what this is all about.
Take the time to find clear photos of an airplane to duplicate in
miniature. Photographic documentation is your best source of
accuracy. Artists take great liberty with three view drawings.
Here's a good example of photo documentation supporting a
stainless exhaust panel.
Photo Courtesy of Curtis
Fowles @ MustangsMustangs.com
Step Two:
What we're after is duplication
of your documentation, not what you think it should look like:^)
If you do not have photo documentation it is virtually impossible to replicate the look of stainless steel.
Mask off perimeter of panel with Scotch
Fineline®
masking. Now you scuff the panel interior
with a Scotch Bright® pad. Scuff surface in a single direction. When
surface appearance is scratched
so it does not look at all like
surrounding panel, remove all masking.
Step Three:
You
are now ready to color the stainless steel panel so it will match
the photograph. So you'll know that all P-51's don't look alike,
here is another stainless steel exhaust panel photograph:
Photo Courtesy of Curtis Fowles @
MustangsMustangs.com
Remove aluminum residue with
Prep-sol. Re-mask the perimeter of the stainless exhaust panel
with Scotch
Fineline®
masking. You are
now ready to apply a color to match your documentation.
Color match
your panel with dirty clear lacquer paint or stains. Dirty clear
is by far the easiest to match because it gradually darkens as
more and more is applied in light coats. Select color pigment
which matches your photo documentation in its opaque state then
thin with 80% clear. If this % is not sufficiently opaque, reduce
clear %. I would thin the paint such that it requires no fewer
than 4 coats to darken.
Step
Four:
In
rare cases, stainless steel exhaust panels can be replicated with
a single coat of matte or flat clear paint applied to the masked
area. In the case of artist drawn 3 view documentation...this
usually works.
©
surrounding panel, remove all masking.
