WORN WING WALKS
To make the Texan look as if it has been used by many flight cadets, you have to add some severe wear on the wing-walk areas near the fuselage and cockpit entries. On the full-size aircraft, these were coated with a nonslip coating, much like rough sandpaper, to prevent the skyward-bound aviators from slipping and falling off the wing.
I found a photo of a Texan whose worn wing-walk areas I thought would be interesting to duplicate (see photo at left). Note how the nonslip coating has peeled off from use. After masking off the basic rectangle shape of the wing-walk area, I tore little bits of masking tape and placed them in a random fashion to simulate the wear patterns shown in the photo.
I created a 1/5-scale nonslip coating because I didn’t think sandpaper glued to the wing would look convincing. I used Liquitex acrylic paint, which is fairly thick, and mixed it with microballoons. The microballoons give the paint a grainy texture that looks just right. Add enough microballoons so that the Liquitex is saturated with them, then just paint the mixture on with a brush. Of course, you can’t just paint the wing walk a deep rich black and leave it that way; it wouldn’t look real. To weather it down a little, I airbrushed a light gray wash over the black. After that had dried, I wetted the surface down and applied a good dose of Model Master acrylic “leather” paint, rubbing it back and forth to spread the color out while the paint was still wet. Using a paper towel, I lightly dabbed at the paint to break up the streaking and give it a little “pitter-patter” effect. Mud and grime collect on the surface; it then gets ground in by people walking on the surface. Then with rain and airstream, it dissolves and flows back and against the fuselage. This subtle mottling of the various colors replicates the color and appearance of the actual wing walk. The effect is subtle but effective. When you’ve finished, pull away the masking tape to see how beat up and realistic the wing walk looks. The final photo shows the grain and peeled effect well. The blue paint under the nonslip coating will eventually look as if it has worn down to the aluminum, but that can be done later.
Mud and grime collect on the surface; it then gets ground in by people walking on the surface. This subtle mottling of the various colors replicates the color and appearance of the actual wing walk. The effect is subtle but effective.