Viper - Part 8 (Oil paint weathering)

Would you believe, it's been FIVE years since I last updated you about the Colonial Vipers?
I had to doublecheck a few times before I could believe it myself.

This is one of my on-again/off-again projects, where I just loose interest for 1 or more years.

One of the last photos of the construction phase I wanted to share was to illustrate how easy it was to perfectly align the landing struts on the Mark VII.

On the the topic of today : oil paint weathering. I used 2 completely different techniques on the 2 Vipers.

Sludge wash

We're now talking october 2015, about 8 months after the previous photo.

The Mark VII was treated with an overall sludge wash. This is the same technique I applied to the AC130H. (weathering-with-oils).

The photos speak for themselves.

Dot filters

Fast forward to may 2018, two and a half years later.

I heard and read about this dot-filter technique and watched some videos online. More specifically, the videos from Foxx on emodelsuk on this exactmodel. (Most prominently : this fragment)

I was finally ready to try my hand at it. I bought a set of Abteilung 502 oils and some odourless turpentine (you can also use mineral spirits or "White Spirit", as we call it at this side of the pond).

For my first attempt, the "dots" were waaay too big and the result was an oily sludge. It started to look a lot more like technique #1.

The big advantage of these oils, is that you can (almost) completely remove them again with a rag dipped in white spirit. It helps that I used a semi-gloss (you could call it "satin") varnish before I put on the decals and another layer to seal them in.
On a matte surface, it's harder to remove all of the oils.

A second, more subtle, attempt with smaller dots and repated application yielded more of the result that I had planned and hoped for.

The result will be better visible when I post the final pictures in the next installment.