Aircraft Finishes

[homechild]

About 20 years ago I built a Hind D and I remember only a few things about it.

1) It was hastily thrown together;

2) I painted it with what I had to hand (one of the desert pattern colours was matt, the other gloss)

3) The aircraft itself looked AWESOME

So I've ordered a Hind F to build but I have one question.

What kind of finish do military planes and choppers have?

Matt, Gloss or (because I know someone will probably say it) Satin?

As they are military vehicles I'd imagine they are matt but never having seen any close up I couldn't say for sure.

[Dave W]

I worked on Phantoms in the RAF.The Grey/Green camouflage colours were matt.When they changed sometime in the eighties to light grey i think they were satin.Dont know about the Hind though.Personally i would go for a matt finish.

[stona]

Matt unless you have some good evidence to the contrary.

Steve

[Guest]

Most of the full size stuff that I work on and paint have a satin finnish, some slightly more dull/matt than others, but extremely rare to be totally matt. It holds onto dirt and is much more difficult to keep clean.

On helos you usually have a section just behind the turbine exhaust and the top of the tailboom that will be stained darker with the soot of the exhaust, this is matt but gets washed off after every flight (in the SAAF atleast)

Also remember a Mil 24 standing on the apron in the sun in Angola/Chad will fade to a matt looking state. The underside of the craft will however still have a slight sheen to int.

Theuns

[homechild]

Thanks for the advice guys.

It's just a 1/72 (although will probably still have a decent size to it) to I'll do the main body with a matt finish and see what kind of finish the satin will give the underside.

I'll see if I can get to any airshows for some first hand research before I attempt a bigger scale aircraft...