Welcome to Part 2 of Painting an Axis Horten HO-347 for Dust Tactics.

In Part 1 I went through the pre-shading, base-coating and highlighting stages and now its time to move onto some weathering techiniques using AK Interactive weathering products.

Weathering and using enamels can seem a little daunting but its actually really quick and easy to learn and only takes a surprisingly short amount of time to do each stage. So lets get started…

Step Six: Applying a Panel Wash

The panel lines already have some depth thanks to the pre-shading I did earlier but I wanted to make them pop a bit more by using a pin wash. Pin-washing the panel lines and rivets is almost effortless when using an enamel wash, as it will naturally flow along the lines.

I used the Afrika Korps Wash thinned down with a couple of drops of odorless turpentine. This was applied directly to the panel lines and rivets using a fine detail brush and allowed to flow.

Then I used a damp cotton bud with a little turpentine to tidy up the small areas of overflow. In all it only took about 5 minutes to pin-wash the top side of the plane.

For the underside I used the Afrika Korps Streaking Grime, as its light green-grey tone suited the RLM78 Blue paint colour perfectly.

Step Seven: Streaking Grime

When weathering an aircraft model you need to work both horizontally and vertically, as dirt and grime will behave differently on each type of surface. On the flat surfaces, such as the wings, weathering occurs horizontally in the direction of the airflow. On vertical surfaces streaks will build up due to rain and these will run downwards.

So I started off by applying some thin horizontal lines of a few different AK grimes and washes on the upper fuselage and wings; including the Afrika Korps streaking grime and wash, as well as the Dark Streaking Grime. Then after these had dried for about 5 minutes I then used a damp brush with White Spirit to fade them out in the direction of the airflow.

This process was repeated on the underside of the wings as well. Then on the vertical sides of the fuselage I applied some streaking grime as well, fading those streaks vertically.

With both the horizontal and vertical streaks I focused more on the areas where grime would be more likely to build up, such as where the flaps pivot.

Step Eight: Paint Chips & Exposed Metal

Using a fine detail brush I applied some small areas of exposed metal and paint chips using some Vallejo Model Air Steel. Once again this was predominately applied to the corners of access panels and the edges of the flaps where wear would more likely occur.

Step Nine: Oil Stains

Once the other weathering had dried I then went back to add some oil stains. This additional weathering was applied more sparingly around the engines and flaps and adds a little extra contrast to those areas.

Next I'll be moving on to a few more weathering stages using more of the AK Interactive Air Series range, including applying exhaust wash and other pigments.