Here are a few pictures of my heavily weathered Tamiya F4U Birdcage Corsair with a few copper, styrene and lead foil additions. The ignition wiring was made of copper wire and the collector ring was thickened. The exit points for wiring are styrene discs punched with punch tool drilled out to accept the plug wires, which are copper strands I found in old extension cord. The cylinders were sprayed Floquil Old Silver and given a heavy acrylic wash with Pollyscale grimy black and alcohol. Dry brushing again with Old Silver brought out the fins and pushrods. A lot of Corsairs had heavy paint wear, so I decided to go all out on this one, I primed the prop with Old Silver and painted with MM Acryl. A light sanding with some 600-grit paper brought out the aluminum finish.

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I primed the model with Floquil Old Silver and used MM acryl paints; masking tape, sandpaper and toothpicks removed the finish in areas of heavy wear. I did not enjoy spraying the Acryl, it turned out nice but I had to work on a couple of splattered areas. I normally use enamel paints, but I did not want the solvent to etch into my aluminum finish. I use a few different shades of blue for a fading effect and weathered with turps/oil wash and pastel chalks. Exhaust, gun streaking, and oil leaks were airbrushed and toned with chalks. Artist Acrylic, heavily thinned, was blown off a brush across the fuselage for additional oil streaking.