How to do A Worn Matt Black Finish?

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Negative Creep

Staff Sergeant
877
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Apr 1, 2007
New Zealand
Haven't posted on this section for a while, been taking a break from modeling to do other things. That other thing being an Xbox 360 which has now packed up so I'm back to low tech hobbies. Anyway I digress, working on the Tamiya 1:48 Mosquito in the all matt black night fighter scheme. I have seen many pictures and illustrations of the matt black finish fading and flaking quite badly, so is there a way of replicating this? Or was it less inclined to peel on canvas and wood?
 
Hi NC,

Glad to read you here again.

Of course there are mathods of making these effects.But could you tell exactly what kind of these you are interested in?
 
With wurger however you could try doing some washes.

Light brown and grey work very well over black for panel definition and general grime.

Also a grafite pencil for the wear on walked on surfaces and frequent movement should be subtle enough but also show up well on the black.

Look foward to seeing it.
 
First off Brush or Airbrush painting?

Some options for consideration....

Airbrush...Well you can start with straight Black and then add 5% and maybe 10% white, even more if necessary....and spray this to all panels carefully misting it on to a desired effect.
new or older aircraft? will have a bearing on 'shade' of black too!

As Heinz said washes, brown, grey etc...and the pencil.....to help.

Brush painting....you maybe should start with a 95/5% mix and you could also then try a drybrushing effect using Light Grey. pastel chalk would be a good option here if you are not sure with the dry brushing....
 
Cheers for the suggestions. I can't find a decent picture of what I want to get, this is the best I could find



I was going to spray it with a matt black can I've got then switch to the airbrush of various shades. One idea I did have was a lighter undercoat then chip/wipe off when it's wet the topcoat. Not sure if that would work?
 
With the undercoat you could just really feather the areas with your airbrush for the top coat rather than try and chip it off. After all you want that worn look rather than damaged.
 
Wiping the wet coat, doesn't sound like a good idea to me....I would apply the lighter coat if this is your option, apply the darker shade, let it dry...and find some very fine grade sandpaper and lightly sand over the appropriate areas where you want to get the worn look....

I did this some time ago on a japanese aircraft to try it....applied the light coat then the Dark Green and carefully and lightly sanded some of the panels a little bit, you must be very careful not to over do it! See below...
 

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Thanks for your advice, lots of interesting things there!

One thing that did occur to me is that a problem with matt black is that decals just don't like sticking to it. Even with decalfix, they don't adhere and you can get silvering. I did wonder if spraying it gloss black, doing the decals, then a coat of matt varnish would work better. Or would that give it an odd finish?
 
Genarally the matt paints are the reason that the silvering effect appears.The only way to avoid this one is to spray or whole model or only at places where decals have to be applied with a gloss varnish.The smooth surface makes decals better sticking to the model.Then spraying with matt varnish to make surfaces matt and giving to decals protection.
 
Wurger is absolutely correct.

When I am creating the worn and or weathered look I do that THEN apply the gloss coat over the entire model, apply the decals, gloss coat the decals again to seal them, then flat coat...

I have found that if the second gloss coat is not done on SOME decals you will get a different sheen on the model to the decals.
 
Also agree with Wayne, his way of making the step during painting and finishing a model is very good.In addition I have to say that there is another problem you can meet with.Some of decals are simply thick.And there can appear " a stair " between the decal edge and a model surface, especially when decals markings are cut off the sheet.The effect can be seen on models of bigger scales.The only solution of the trouble is to spray gloss cote carefully around the decal in order to get solid and smooth surfaces.Then applying the matt varnish.
 
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