Guys, hope you can assist. I don't have a lot of spitfire period photo references of MKI's and MKII's. The ones I have don't show much gun staining on the wings. In some photos I can see some on the underside but I don't see really any with gun staining on the upper wings. Here's the best shot I have of an MKI/MKII over head shot. As you can see plenty of weathering and worn effects on the walk areas but no gun staining.
Also kind of interesting is the fuselage roundels are slightly mis-aligned on this aircraft.
There wasn't that much staining, due to the aerofoil of the wing, and it was normally cleaned off if time allowed, as it was corrosive. However, any staining would be mainly on the underside, in light streaks, with a light 'halo' around the gun ports.
In the pictures below the starboard wing has already be done with the initial white coat. The second 2 pictures are of the look before and after the starboard side was done with a white coat. Next is will be the black coat. For the initial white coat I used X20A and XF-2. I filled my airbrush cup 3/4 of the way with X20A then a small drop of XF-2. Using low pressure I sprayed it on.
After it dried. I removed the salt with a stiff brush but even then with such a highly diluted paint that was almost translucent (extremely low opacity) there was a fair amount of white slotches on the camo. The wing roundel looked particularly bad with white splotches over the blue. So, I wet it down with water and wiped the wing down with a paper towel a few times. After that was dry I dampened a paper towel in X20 and gave it another wipe. I had to do the roundel a couple of times. Wipe once, let it dry , wipe again. I did the same with the fuselage as well. The effect is not as apparent on the wing as it is on the fuselage ( you can see it on the Dark green the most) but that's good enough for me. The idea of the technique I believe is to achieve and effect that looks like its part of the paint fading not like its sitting on the surface of the paint. I did remove quite a bit of the white splotches with my X20A wipe. I could increase the white effect more I suppose by increasing the opacity of the white spray by adding more XF-2 and having another go. the X20A wipe afterward might not take as much off. Given the effect vs amount of time to do it I am not too convinced this is a worthwhile technique. On the other hand perhaps I am just not that experienced with the technique.
Thanks for sharing your experience David. John (JKim) and Kirby (Turbo) have both been doing this and I've been watching with interest. I've not tried it as I'm not yet convinced that it's a method I want to use for the smaller 1/48 scale subjects unless I know that the subject was extremely worn. In hindsight, I think my 404 Squadron Beaufighter would have been a good candidate as the Dark Sea Grey on these was known to fade severely.
Good stuff David.
I'm of a similar mind to Andy regarding the salt method. I used it once, many years ago, and the results were acceptable enough. However, I prefer to do any fading or 'old' surface paint, if at all, by varying the density of the paint when spraying, as I feel I have more overall control that way.
Nice work David! I've been toying with the salt technique as well. Sometimes it turns out well and sometimes... not so well. When it works, I think it provides a nice random wear pattern, evoking what you might find on any large surface that has been left outdoors. It looks a bit like the calcium deposits left from drying moisture. I think it looks really well on 1/48 and 1/32 subjects but have not tried it on anything smaller.
My main difficulty with this technique is gauging the intensity. Subtle is good but too little and it will go unnoticed. Too much or too uniform and you get a weird freckle effect. Plus, it can be a pain getting all of the salt off.
Back with another update.
Canopies now complete and gunsight done. I used the AK Gauzy super high gloss clear for the canopies. Stuff is not cheap but it gives the clearest effect I have seen yet. The gunsight is the resin one from Barracuda and I scratched the reflector part with styrene. Used my punch and die set to create the reflector glass.
Also, here is the Pilot figure I am going to use with my build.