How to create realistic aircraft exhaust staining

Exhausts

A short ‘how-to’ from Chris Evans

A note from Geoff C…
You may have seen Chris E’s superb full build article of the equally superb Airfix 1:24 scale Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat? If not, you should for sure!

I spotted a comment from Stuart asking Chris how he created the very realistic exhaust staining on the fuselage and so what follows is a capture of that description that I thought you’d all find helpful and so here it is.

As you can see, the effect Chris creates is stunning and I will definitely give his method a go when I’m looking for a similar effect – thanks Chris for your heads up – V useful!

Here’s a link to his full build of the Airfix 1:24 Hellcat.

Over to you Chris…

Hi

The exhaust staining is all airbrush and pigment powders. I found some good wartime pics of the exhaust stains, and they looked quite light in colour.

I first airbrushed the basic stain pattern in Tamiya Matt Black, just lightly dusting, not too heavy.

Then, I airbrushed a light brown tan colour in the middle and kept widening it until it almost covered the black.

Once this was dry I used a fine paint brush to brush dark brown pigment into the panel lines and around the rivets. Any excess pigment can be scrubbed in with a finger to make it extra dirty.

Once I was happy, I then scrubbed away at the edges with an old spiky paint brush to simulate scratches and stuff.

I also streaked some black pigment near each exhaust port to show individual exhaust pipe soot.

There is no set-in-stone way to do it, once you have the basic staining laid down, just experiment with different pigment colours.

Just make sure that the initial paint is fully matt so the pigments stick to it.

Hope this helps, and thanks again.
Chris E.