Airbrushing cardstock?

[dhanners]

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience airbrushing cardstock.

In trying to figure out a way to replicate the wear of thermal-sensitive paint on an X-15’s wing and tailplane, it struck me that maybe physical airbrushing is a possibility. (I have zero repainting skills and work only on my iPad, so a digital repaint is beyond my capabilities.)

In looking on Amazon, I see plenty of those dual-action airbrushes with a built-in mini-compressor, marketed for makeup and small art projects. In the U.K., they cost a bit over £20. Some claim to be able to spray lines down to 3mm. I’d be spraying onto 170gsm glossy coated text, and I have no idea how it would take paint. In the past, I have successfully painted an X-15 wing with rattle-can paint.

Anybody use one on a cardmodel? Advice on paint or other things? Bad idea?

[Dave Pete]

Airbrushes are great tools, but they also require some skill. Sounds like you are looking to 'weather' the finish. I expect there are many videos on weathering models on YouTube. I would start there and then practice on some test pieces before trying it on the model.

[smithdr]

I airbrush card stock all the time and treat it just like a plastic model. I even use putty on it where needed, sand it, prime it etc. Works great and you can even add decals too. I use Tamyia acrylic paints and they seem to work great.


As others have said, practice with the airbrush a bit and it will look cool!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFGouTJX2c&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu2P9dsKm80



Good luck,
Dan

[dhanners]

Originally Posted by Dave Pete

Airbrushes are great tools, but they also require some skill. Sounds like you are looking to 'weather' the finish. I expect there are many videos on weathering models on YouTube. I would start there and then practice on some test pieces before trying it on the model.

Thanks. I had an airbrush decades ago when I built plastic models. It’s long gone, though.

During its flying career, X-15-2 wore different patches of infrared or thermal-sensitive paint (called “templac”) on its left wing and side tunnel, as well as on parts of the dorsal and ventral rudder. The templac changed color depending on how hot it got. That way, ground crews could tell after a flight what heat loads various parts of the airframe had experienced. The wear of the templac gave a visual representation of the temperatures.

Compounding the issue from a modeling standpoint, sometimes the paint would be removed (or replaced) before the next flight, or they’d just leave it on and it would get even further weathered. It all depends on what flight you’re choosing to model.

I’m wanting to do a flight that took place in late 1961. I still haven’t decided which one in particular (one set an altitude record, while the other was the first flight of an aircraft above Mach 6) but the photos below show what the upper and lower surfaces of the left wing would look like, and you can see the remnants of old templac on the left tailplane. You can also see why it is a challenge to model.