How to do Chipped Paint

by Ralf Pätzold

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Hi everybody,

I felt prompted to submit this article when I saw Alexander Sidharta’s article on building and weathering his 1/72 Italeri F4U-5N Corsair. I have tried a similar thing lately, using another method, and I thought the differences in both method and result might be enlightening.

Background: some time ago I bought a Revell kit of an 1:72 scale F-4 U-1 Corsair (kit no. 04112 in Germany). I had previously built a number of kits in that scale from Revell, e.g. the Me 262 and Fw 190, that I considered “perfect” except for the substandard canopies … Anyway, the Corsair kit turned out to be one of those “historic” offerings dating back to modeling stone age that no one is ever safe from with Revell.

I am, of course, aware of the rule that there are no bad kits, only bad modelers unable to do a kit justice. Still, after pre-fitting it became obvious to me that the amount of work that would have to be invested in making this kit look and feel like a “true” Corsair would simply be much more than I was ready to waste. I thought the worst part was the canopy which completely lacked the “bubbly” look of the original.

I decided instead to use the kit as the basis for an experiment in weathering, using a technique completely new to me. Although this method will produce more convincing results with larger scale models I was quite pleased with the outcome.

So here are some in-progress shots that show what happened:

Stage 1: After surface prep work This is after the basic airframe has been assembled and all surface preparation has been carried out. Everything was built out-of-the-box except for some holes that I decided to cover up in order to get rid of the “see-through” look of the kit, e.g. the air intakes at the wing root.

Stage 2: All-over aluminium finish This is after application of Model Master Metalizer aluminium, sealer, and a coat of Germany’s equivalent of Future. I left everything to dry for a couple of days.

Stage 3: Camouflage scheme A three-color camouflage scheme (blue/blue gray/white) using acrylic colors was applied “in one go”. This was necessary to complete the whole process as quickly as possible. I managed to spray on all the coats and arm/clean the airbrush between colors in just under 20 minutes (hey – if nothing else, I would at least get the satisfaction of having achieved a personal speed record!).

After taking the photograph I immediately progressed to the next stage:  

Stage 4: Weathering by ripping and scratching I now ventured to rip off parts of the camouflage coat with adhesive tape. I used every kind of tape available, from Tamiya masking to duct and parcel tape.   I was surprised to find that the coat(s) of acrylic color were rather resilient even though they had only just been sprayed on – the Tamiya tape just wouldn’t rip anything. I should add at this point that the acrylics used were by Jens Popp a.k.a. ”Don Color”,

Click on image below to see larger image

a German guy who not only has a great web site on camouflage schemes at www.jpsmodell.de, but also sells a range of colors that consist of the acrylic pigment and water only. Nothing seems to clog up my Aztec airbrush like this stuff during a spraying session, but (wonder of wonders!) the degree of control you have with a double action airbrush and the quality of the results that can be achieved are marvelous.

It took me some time to find out that ripping works best as follows:

1. Apply adhesive tape rather tightly, pressing it onto the surface with the tip of a finger.
2. Rip the tape off as quickly and with as much power as can be mustered, at the same time yanking the model violently into the opposite direction. I found that the way to attain maximum speed was to hold the model in my left hand, the tape in my right, and then to quickly rotate my forearms to the outside using the elbows as the centers of rotation. This really takes a lot of nerve, but doing it slow and gently will either do nothing or remove very large areas of color.

I used the prop, external fuel tank and some parts of the airframe to see what kind of results could be produced by scratching off the color with sanding paper, steel wool, fingernails and other materials. I was pleasantly surprised at the degree of control you have over the “scratchedness” of the look using this technique.

Completion

After leaving the model to dry for two days I added and painted the remaining parts, sprayed two more coats of floor wax (with a light sanding in between), applied decals, weathered some more using lightly sprayed and washed black and greenish tints, and sealed everything with a coat of semi-gloss cote (mixed from Model Master Glosscote and Dullcote plus lots of thinner).

The end result looks like this:  

Click on images below to see larger images

I know the look would be more convincing yet if the decals had somehow been made part of the “ripping” process, but that’s for another day …

Conclusion

The “ripping and scratching” method used here, although time-consuming and a little unusual due to its violent nature, produces pleasing results even if used by a novice.

Ripping is very useful for chipping larger areas of paint. Scratching, even if applied only locally, produces realistic attrition on exposed parts such as props or fuel tanks.

Smaller chippings, however, can be convincingly produced with less effort by simply dabbing aluminium/silver onto finished surfaces with a hard paintbrush, as with the area around the canopy of this 1:72 Revell Fw 190:  

As an added bonus the ripping method, if used on a regular basis, will work wonders on the muscles in your arms and improve your chances with girls who are in the habit of going out with Heavy Metal drummers.

Enjoy,

Ralf  

 Photos and text © 2002 by Ralf Pätzold