Weathered Plane

by FliteTest | September 3, 2012 | (32) Posted in Tips

Got hanger rash!? aka: scratches and dings. Instead of repainting your RC flyer, you can simply "weather your plane" and give it a realistic distressed look with some paint and charcoal!





Your can transform your RC flyer into a realistic plane and also hide scratches and dings by adding some 'nitty gritty', to do this, break up some charcoal and brush it on the high points of your plane in the direction of the airflow.



 




Using this same dry brush technique you can simulate wood grain too! All you will do is painting with darker paint on light parts and lighter paint on dark parts and lightly brush the colors on your wood parts until you achieve the look you want. 



 




If you're worried about your paint skills, just practice the technique on a scrap piece of plastic or some paper before painting on your plane. 




You'll want to seal everything once you've painted or added your charcoal weathering. To seal it, use a can of spray on lacquer and lightly coat your plane. This will help seal the charcoal and protect your paint from more scratches.




There's a bunch of other ways you can paint your plane, these are just a few techniques. Next time you get a chance try it out, it's a great way to customize your plane and make it your own!




We want to thank Chris Roncaglione for this demonstration and his help painting the plane in this episode!

There's some more great weathered warbirds you can check out, in the forums: CLICK HERE

The RC Warbird featured in this episode is available from Hobby King:
Durafly SE5a 1030mm (PNF) 

COMMENTS

tramsgar on September 4, 2012
Good subject and overview. Followed up by showing details of each technique being applied and it would be perfect! Thanks guys.
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Benn Gunn on September 3, 2012
cool as always
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Reinaldo Moreira on October 23, 2012
Great colors.. Congratulations Chris.
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Willsonman on September 5, 2012
Make sure not to use an acetone-based sealer on non EPO foams. The acetone will melt the foam in a hurry. Other than that... great job.
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Noah Butler on June 26, 2013
How do you know if it is Acetone base or not?
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Willsonman on June 26, 2013
Read the label. Ingredients will show acetone.
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House Of Noob on September 3, 2012
We've uses pastels in the past to weather n-scale trains. Couple of the right colors can leave all sorts of interesting visual stories on the model.

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Noah Butler on June 26, 2013
Where do you get the MinWax? Like at a Home Depot or something?
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danield on August 14, 2013
Test on scrap, if it melts, you win !
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11-Nov-11 on June 3, 2014
beautiful!
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Weathered Plane