Realistic Black Finishes for Model Airplanes
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2022
- Whether I am making an all black airplane or any other scale model, I have found that painting pure black doesn't work.
In this video I show how I use shading, mottling and oils to paint an SR-71 Blackbird. This easy method will ensure all of the model's detail can be seen and appreciated. - Навчання та стиль
A handy thing to remember when painting models is that we aren't painting color, we are painting light.
Beautiful work!
Having built several SR-71's I can tell anyone who is going to take on one of those kits, the paint is far more complex than just spraying it black and calling it good. What you have to remember though is that many of the pictures you'll find in searches are museum pieces that have sat out in the weather for extended times, so the weathering is exaggerated in comparison to how they looked when they were in service and subject to the high temps generated at Mach 3. The wing "ribbing" is called corrugation, just like sheet metal roof panels. This kept the panels from warping at high temps.
The Blackbird at the SAC museum in Nebraska looks gray because it’s super dusty. Something tells me an in-service one wouldn’t have that much dust on it. 😊
I think you are the only modeller in 4 years of watching modeling videos, that didnt completely obliterate the preshading. I never understand priming black, preshading then layering on a color coat so thick that it covered everything. I prefer primer, color, post shading. it just seems more economical
This is a very realistic looking black color scheme. After seeing the techniques I will try this as I have a couple of aircraft that need a black finish to them Thanks for sharing this.
Years ago when I saw the SR-71 still in active service I got to walk around the plane and even touch it. It was rough like bedliner but not near as bumpy. The underside was almost a gloss only because it was really wet from all of the fuel that have been leaking out of it. There was aluminum pans on the ground underneath the plane to catch the leaking fuel. I think those corrugated panels are expansion panels for when the plane expands.
This is off-topic and I’m sure a lot of people know this but when GM paints a car black they use white primer and when they paint a car white they use black primer.
One of the first things I remember being taught in painting is that black is almost never actually just black. Using shades and tones and avoiding using pure black usually helps to make things look just that bit more alive
Adding slight amounts of red or yellow.
Also, the smaller the scale, the lighter it should be :-)
Those Ridges on the wing the Corrugated skin was there for A reason, and the reason is when the plane goes supersonic and heats up it permits the airframe to flex move and expand from stresses without breaking ..
That and, that's also why the tanks were not sealed.
And yes, awesome looking model right there...might do that with my RC black bird soon.
Love the experimental technique as a share. The results are great.
Probably the best Blackbird model I’ve seen so far. Bravo!
agreed
I'm not going to lie, this video might get me back to model building after 20 years.
Since I later went into watercolours as hobby, I can see painting the relatively simple structure of Blackbird as my return project.
And I will use this video as reference ;)
Expansion or control joints is what they're called. The aircraft expands in flight due to the heat from friction. Apparently it leaked fuel like crazy while on the ground due to anticipation of the same expansion.
Thanks for the video, informative and enjoyable. I'm 74 and have been building models since I was a preteen, still learning how.
Blackboard or Chalkboard spray paint is a good match that I have found. I have original preserved samples of the SR-71's paint.
The paint on the aircraft in museums is very old and most have been repainted with regular black paints.
Thanks for sharing , as a young man , I built 134 1/72 planes, none were easy to paint. Each was a copy of a real plane with a.l the markings and weathering, tiny flying wires were human hair trunk buckles tiny bit of thinned glue. It kept me busy and out of the bars ...lol. each had a tiny name plate . I was quite proud of my work , then a niece and nephew, visited while I was at work , my dear sister
Allowed them to run about and yes you can play with the toy plane. Yea you know what is coming ....they flew them into the walls , all 134 destroyed . Sis and I don't talk much , but that's OK.
This is something I seriously need to take into consideration when I go to finish that old ARII 1/144 scale Blackbird kit.
One thing that stands out in your video is that looking at pictures of the real plane can be very informative. Something I'm reminded of whenever I take a photograph a completed model and compare it to one of an actual aeroplane. 😒
Great techniques to try and you have some valid points about how worn black paintjobs can get.
I researched black shades on SR-71s years ago for a build and since there is a full size plane near me in a museum, I did color chip samples of ten different blacks and dark grey shades in my stash.
In summary, flat black out of the bottle was way too dark. The shade I settled upon as being the closest was Floquil Grimy Black and I acquired a few bottles of that for future uses. When I did my 1/48 Revell kit last year, I did some similar color chip analysis since Floquil and Testors Model Master are no longer around. Grimy black is still best if one can find it as a couple RR paint lines have versions of it. But Tamiya Rubber Black and NATO Black are good alternatives with Rubber Black being a little darker out of the bottle.
Blackbirds can have paint variations in the panels, especially between the airframe and the nose given the noses can be changed out and stored under lock and key in a maintenance room while the rest of the plane sits in a partial open top hangar.
So for my build, I went with a Mr. Black Surfacer primer coat and a Grimy Black base coat. For accent panels, I did mixes of Rubber Black with Tamiya German Grey and/or Dark Iron to get some of those color variations. I didn't go with the lighter pre-shade or streaks given the plane I was representing was a late Kadena bird. Some of the weather streaking on the white lettered Blackbirds I believe was potentially down to them being kept outside at forward deployed bases such as RAF Mildenhall until a couple enclosed hangars got built in the early 80s (the red markings came about around 1984-85). But some of the dust is probably due to white chalk residue used to do "custom art" on planes being flown back to Beale AFB. One of the jets came home with so much chalk on it that the wing command got a little more strict on that behavior.
In any event, nice work and I may use the streaks on an upcoming U-2 build. Thanks!
When the low RCS paint was freshly painted on the Blackbirds, it's texture was like a soft fine velvet. During flight at cruise temperatures, the paint would cure. It was not too long after a few missions, fuel exposure, and maintenance, the paint would become smoother and lighter in appearance.
Corrugations. Those wing “troughs” are the corrugations. They, and many of the fuse/wing panels sit atop “clips”. Clips are exactly what they sound like, a bracket that holds the panels to the structure, but that allow the expansion of the skin. At speed, those corrugations get shallower and expand and slide along, the clips.
Those ribs that you're talking about are the effect of taking the panel and having a corrugated so that it doesn't crumple when it warps at the height temperatures that occur from the traveling at Mach 3 and well above that. So you might call those lines a corrugation. Much like cardboard can be corrugated.
Awesome work! May I suggest instead of q-tips... try using the "foam" makeup sponges, they last longer, don't leave little fibers and are equally inexpensive!
Great idea!
You touched on one of the key points of replicating something real: It's good observation skills. "Is it really black you're looking at? Is the color the same everywhere?" Most likely no, so don't try to make that work.
I've done something similar to all my models for years but I use a base of enamel silver paint. This does a few things. One, it gives a metallic base that you can work to for weathering. Two, it gives you a primer coat to allow other paint to stick well to it. Three, it will show you where you have sharp edges on the plastic after you've sanded and filled by pulling away from those edges. Then all you have to do it sand that bit or bits, and reapply the silver. For better black coat I use acrylic paint instead of enamels as this give a more flat look with a rough texture like on a lot of military equipment.(this is particularly effective for making a CARC paint effect for US Army equipment) Then I use a bit of ground pastels for weathering applied dry to the areas that are needed, and taking a bit of baking soda, and mixing your prefered color of mud, or dirty snow, and adding it to the baking soda is a great way to add mud and snow to your equipment.
Bravo. You need to talk with Mark Smith and his black without black method. Ask Jim about it.
I could have done with this tutorial before I built my F-117A Nighthawk last year haha! Good tips here :D
Honestly, I had never even thought about NOT using black for my black aircraft models before!! I'll need to attempt this on my next build!
Wow, by chance this popped up on my feed, just as I had purchased the Revell 1/72 SR-71 model... Perfect timing, looks awesome!!!
Glad I could help!
Not even into this stuff and don't even know why I watched it - but I think that looks really cool! Good job.
I did it the same way, it looks fantastic, out of this world!
Great summary!
All those particles in the air essentially sandblast the top layer of the paint and brighten the overall look, so a black base, then shading and then a thin coat tom bring everything together was exactly what was called for.
The thing on the wings you are asking about... the wings are corrugated which helps the wing handle high temperatures because the corrugations expand vertically and horizontally. They act a bit like a heat sink.
Thank you chap. Much more to this airbrushing thing than meets the eye. I have looked round these in service going back and it's smack on. Fast forward 35 years and I am back into modelling and about to start a little black O2 Skymaster....we will see😂👍
SUPER! I love that plane and you did an awesome job. Thanks.
Great video 👍🏻👍🏻 Excellet ideas for an upcoming Black Widow build.
Nailed it!!! EXCELLENT result and definitely as close to those real photos as I have ever seen. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This will help a lot when I build my blackbird and berkut, thank you!!!
Excellent result. "You only get better with practice and with taking risks" rings so true. We all fall into complacency and wonder why we aren't getting any better/keep making the same mistakes. Thanks for the video!
Incredible paintjob!
Windex with ammonia is a no no with Vallejo and generally bad for an airbrush. The ammonia breaks down the resins in the paint. It also reacts with brass which most airbrushes are made with. It can and will compromise the plating and can correspondingly compromise the flow characteristics of the airbrush. Some airbrushes, it can also attack the packing seal(s).
Agree 👍
Thanks for the tip! I have several Iwata airbrushed that I'm just now learning how to use, so it's nice to know the do's and dont's from others
I appreciate your erudition.
good point but new windex is ammonia free. read the label. i was trying to clean an inkjet printer and specifically wanted ammonia, but no products have that anymore.
Will Pattison in one of his episodes says that there is no problem using ammonia with your airbrush and he gives data to prove it. The dilutions we use are low and for very short periods of time and it won’t affect your chrome plating.
I painted and weathered my own 1/72 Blackbird basically the same way. 👍
Very cool. You've inspired me.
I'm gonna use this on my F-117 build!
You mentioned you didn't like the airbrush streaking down the fuselage and chines. Going with a dagger stroke with the airbrush might have better achieved what you were looking for. A dagger stroke starts out with the airbrush a little distance from the surface, as "circle" of pigment develops start moving the airbrush closer to the surface and letting off of the trigger at the same time while streaking in one direction. It looks like a comment with a tapering tail, the quicker the movement, the longer the tail. Using the post-it note like you did, you can start the dagger stroke on the post-it note and then drag the tail onto the fuselage surface. It takes some practice to get dagger strokes down but once you start to see some consistent success it's an invaluable tool in your airbrushing. If you've ever seen an airbrushed tiger or similar animal, to create the fur or "hair" effect, theiy're comprised almost entirely of dagger strokes with the airbrush.
I would like to see you do a P-61B Black Widow. They were painted glossy black, because test revealed that a glossy color in the night sky was a better camouflage against a starry sky. But these finishes also faded and didn't remain very glossy, although they were not flat matte, either. I'll keep an eye out for your video.
There is a p-61 model shown at 0:44
@@IntrusiveThot420 it's not his, or i don't think it was, just an example of all-black without any shading or panel lining
Great video! Looking at the comments I'm not sure how many people appreciated just how apt the tiny fragment of music was that you played right at the start! ;). I saw one of these aircraft for real on one of my visits to the 'states (the Davis Monthan Airbase in Arizona) and your interpretation looks pretty accurate to me! Great work!
Looks awesome!
Excellent work.
what's interesting about weathering, is that most people measure or benchmark it against a single photo (or two) and judge everything based on that specific outcome. Of course, there are many many degrees of wear and tear during the life of an aircraft. The weathering factor depends on when photos are taken - everyone knows this, but don't really think about it.... So nothing is ever really incorrect, unless it's way overdone.
Good point. Also, the lighting where the model is displayed also has a large effect on the coloring. I'm always amused when some pro modeler states "Oh, that's 10% too dark/light/red/blue/yellow etc. etc." (pick one!). They are viewing the model in THEIR studio lighting, which is different that my bedroom and your den. And if you look at proto a/c, is it the same time of day, same exact weather, etc? If not, it WILL be different shades of whatever. But then, that's half the fun of modeling - making it 'real"!
Thanks for the excellent video - its great to get an appreciation of technique in this case. the 'trench lines' are expansion panels - the furrows in the surface smooth out as the Blackbird skin is heated during Mach 3 flight, and with the fuel cooling the skin.
Excellent video and you nailed it with the weathering! Not a big fan of most Mig products though, there are easier methods and significantly cheaper materials that can be used (just not as convenient)! 👍
Turned out great to me
That looks awesome - well done.
Nice job mate. Looks awesome
Outstanding. Both the work, the script, the video and audio.
I love it and I'm happy you left out the fuel streaks.
Stunning
I found many years ago that even if you wanted a more or less flawless black finish on a model that you should not use either gloss back or flat back. Aside from covering over the fine detail, nothing painted either flat black or gloss black looks like that for very long. Mixing flat black model paint and gloss black model paint to produce more of a semigloss looks much better. However recently I was painting a 1/48 Monogram T-28D in the special camo of the 606th special ops squadron (modified SE Asia top with a black bottom) and found that with modern Testors paints it takes very little gloss added to the flat to attain the desired finish. The old 50/50 mix I used to employ 50 years ago will come out looking like just gloss paint; that probably was Pactra, anyway.
Looks excellent.
The girder-like appearances of the fill panels on the trailingt edges are radar-absorbing shapes. THey work really well !. THe forward extensions of the wings onto the outboard midpoints of the engines are called "aerodynamic chines".
Very nice result. I notice the red outline on the museum model has faded to orange, almost yellow. It would be nice if manufacturers would include red, and faded ones for us to make that choice with!
Nice technique- thanks. Yes, it's easy to get them too black, and even if it's correct for a model of a freshly painted a/c, it never looks right. The corrugations on the wing was Lockheed's solution to cope with heat expansion- a flat surface couldn't cope. I have this 1/48 Revell to do soon- but I hope mine doesn't have those sink holes in the ducts near the tail!
Hey, the supersonic airplane modelers finally caught up with what the model railroaders were doing with steam locomotives 60 years ago, cool! 😄
That is amazing, beautiful, mind blowing!! I mean WOW! That’s how it’s done!
Thank you
Bob
England
Except for the liquid containing ammonia, it’s a great tutorial! Thanks 🙏
Well done! I do indeed like how you are willing to "take risks" to achieve the look you are after in a given model, but also arguably to press the envelope of your skill set!
I haven't done scale models in decades, but videos like this are why I keep on an eye on you geniuses! Very nice video. I especially like that you approached it from an experimentation pov (so many "experts" out there). The end result is five-stars. Thank you
Great work! I recently got the Revell 1/48 Blackbird and after seeing several real Blackbirds now...I was scared to even start this kit...but I enjoy seeing videos like yours that show how to make this black jet look realistic. Many thanks!
Great work!
I first paint with a grey primer. Then a light steel wool 0000. Then a dusting of silver. Then flat black. Now I start using a little pad of 0000 on a q-tip to make those streaks and wear patterns. Then a coat of semi gloss clear and a rubbing of 0000 all over to flatten the finish.
according to the net its called corrugated titanium skin paneling I would hazard a guess from their position they have something to do with cooling as this is a area where the air decompresses and drops below the dew point what creates condensation trails
so a Corrugated titanium refrigerant condenser heat sink panel
beautiful work that thing looks amazing
seen in a comment where someone said it's for thermal expansion and contraction contraction that makes sense
Beautiful bird!
Gorgeous
Looks a lot better
That looks amazing!
gorgeous
Printed out an Eclipse bomber from Star Citizen for a friend, wasn't happy with the all-black look, going to have to give this technique a try!
Awesome work
Excellent work.
Thanks for the tips.
Such a great tutorial!! Thank you!!
That was interesting. Way out of my league of using brushes. Got to get airbrush kit one day. It just looks sooooo much better than brushed.
This looks really cool. Do you know any way to get more "dirty" looking aircraft as a final result? I think the overall colour and texture and detail on your build pop really well.
Fantastic result! Will definitely try it in my next “all black” model. Cheers!
It look fantastic.
Great paint work. 👍👍
@04:40 Pretty sure those are just corrugated skin panels also acting as the SR-71's fuel tanks with the corrugation helping in maintaining structural integrity.
Your airplane looks gorgeous. Currently I am building a 1:72 lancaster and will use it on the black underside and sides.
Great subject. Thanks for the tips. Interesting thought of the Windex/Vallejo mix. I will try that.
Superb.
Beautiful work. Nice to see the creation process.
Excellent work 👍👍👍
GREAT work. Thanks for sharing your technique and expirence.
I was going to buy another kit to try all the different shades I've seen in so many photos. And the more I looked, the more I didn't want to start. So, I didn't. But this is nice! Now I know it's not too difficult.
Thank you for the great tutorial! You're spot on! You are an acute observer of the reality and then you managed to perfectly portrait what you see and also explain it! Great! I will apply your technique next time I come across a black model! Thank you!
Thank you! This has been so helpful!
Phenomenal!
Many thanx 👍👍
Cool bird. Nice technique btw
This is fantastic! Your build turned out great and the simple explanation made sense to this noob modeler. Thanks for sharing!!!
Outstanding video! Very simple procedure and well put forth. i am looking forward to my next black plane.
Nice job, mate!
From what I have read the Blackbird was painted a dark blue. I remember one book referred to it as cannonball blue.
The "dark blue" comment came about in the 80s when Testors did their Blackbird kits in conjunction with the release of their "Model Master" paint line which had Dark Sea Blue as a color. Since it wasn't a straight black shade, it worked better for the SR-71 than flat black.
At the time, it was the best we had when working with a single paint manufacturer's product line. Floquil shades such as Grimy black and Tamiya's NATO Black and Rubber Black in my experience tend to work better.
The cracks are deliberate spacing between tiles. When the bird is flying at speed, the tiles heat up and expand.
I like it!