Painting exhausts

[SimonCornes]

Can someone recommend a good paint combination for painting a steel exhaust for a 1/32 Junkers H.I please?
I imagine its going to be a rusty brown colour but I would be grateful if you could let me have the benefit of your experience please!
Thank you

Simon

[lcarroll]

Simon,
     I like Alclad II ALC 123 "Exhaust Manifold" by air brush and sometimes adding a little dry brushing with a copper enamel.



Cheers,
Lance

[SimonCornes]

Lance,
Thank you for that and the included photo. I wasn't sure until I saw the photo but that looks very good! I like Alclad but I don't have any 123 so I'll order some straight away!
Cheers
Simon

[petrov27]

I do similar to Lance there for the base color but sometimes I want a more weathered look I may hit it sparingly with a dry-brush of a rust red/brown. May also darken the end a bit with some black weathering powder from one of the Tamiya weathering sets.

[SimonCornes]

Thanks Petrov - all grist to the mill!!

[lcarroll]

   Thanks for the reminder regarding the addition of a little darkening with weathering medium and/or powder Petrov 27. I used to do that however have forgotten it of late (among other things!) Aging is wonderful ....... not!
Cheers,
Lance

[Ian from Doncaster]

I’ve tried a few combinations - no pics sorry.

For a rusted effect, I’ll start with a base spray, something like humbrol’s gunmetal.  This isn’t very metallic and has a pitted surface.  That’s not great for a natural metal finish required elsewhere, but for a rusty exhaust it works really well.  The pitted surface allows weathering powders - I use dust from sanded pastel sticks in a variety of rusty shades as well as dark grey/black for the sooty end.

Another method sees a base coat of grey primer spray, a thin layer of matt black, giving the same pitted effect.  The metal tones are achieved by buffing with the brush I use for polishing up mr metal paints - there is usually some residual matter on the brush and this gives the glint to the high points between the pits, then weather there as above.

For cleaner new exhausts I brush on and buff mr metal, iron or dark iron colour, which is more difficult to weather.

[SimonCornes]

Thanks Ian, this is all very useful. I'm going down the Alclad exhaust manifold route this time but I hope to be able to compare the results from different techniques in due course!

[Dave in Dubai]

Aircraft exhausts pipes don’t rust.

They are made from heat and corrosion resistant lightweight metals.

There seems to be a school of thought that they should be finished like the exhaust pipes you see on your car , probably because we see car exhausts more often and most people do not look at aircraft exhausts every day.

I recall seeing exhaust pipes at the crash site of a mosquito some years ago. They were as good as the day they were bolted onto the Merlins despite having lain exposed to the weather on a Scottish hillside for over forty years.
The exhaust pipes are now fitted to a restored mosquito at a museum in the north east of England.

Aircraft exhaust pipes do discolour due to heat over time,usually resulting in various shades of dark to light brown or grey, over the base metal colour.

Kermit weeks albatros - built by TVAL has a shiny metal exhaust which is indicative of photos of some aircraft during WW1 when newly delivered.

Less common or even absent are blue discolourations in the metals esp on rotary engines which take on a dirty brown appearance when in frequent use. Take a look at any radio control modellers engines covered in burnt castor oil to see the effect.