I jumped back onto the Erla build today. I wanted to continue with the weathering process. I picked up the model and started doing some paint chipping using a silver pencil.
I stopped when I remembered that I wanted to do some salt fading on this build. You can use salt crystals as mask to produce paint chips but also, if you use a more diluted paint mix, a way of producing random fading stains. I've had trouble modulating this effect on my past builds and produced barely noticeable effects, which seemed like a big waste of effort.
The process is quite simple. First, you brush a thin layer of water on to the surface of the model. Then you sprinkle salt onto the wet surface. The process of the salt melting and the water evaporating serves to secure the salt onto the surface of the model as the water dries.
Wait until the water is completely evaporated. Once dry, you lightly spray a diluted mix of a lighter color such as gray onto the model. The effect is hard to gauge because it's hard to see the results until you've actually wiped away the salt.
When the salt is removed from the model, the masking effects should be visible. Be very thorough in cleaning off the salt as it tends to gather in joints and recesses and will frost into a white bloom when the undetectable saline moisture dries. I use a spray bottle of water and spray the model off over a trash can and wiping dry with a clean, microfiber cloth. The result? Hmmm... interesting. I actually did the salt thing twice on my Dora build due to how subtle it was. I think I erred in the opposite direction this time.
Great. Looks like the model has a bad case of the freckles.
Since the camo coat is protected by multiple clear coats by now, you can dial back the salt fading effect by gentle polishing using Micromesh. However, this started to reveal some of the imperfections in the modeling surface and I could only correct so far using this method.
When it became apparent that I couldn't save the finish by rubbing the salt fading effect away, I had to resort to spraying the camo colors again. I wanted to preserve SOME of the salt fading effects so again, I used a very dilute mix of the camo colors and touched up the troublesome areas until they looked ok.
A close up of the corrective work on the Dark Green area on the cowling using a very dilute mix of RLM 83.
I did this over the entire surface of the model using RLM 83 and RLM 75.
What a pain but at least it wasn't a fatal mistake. I may have to seal this paint work and do the wash again in certain areas as the repainting destroyed some of that work.