Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Cosmo Reverse Ver. [WIP - Burnt Metal Effect on the Exhaust Nozzle]

In a move based more on flexing my creative license rather than mimicking physical reality, I went ahead to paint a burnt metal look on the Space Battleship Yamato Exhaust Nozzle. This effect is often found on titanium car exhaust mufflers with a burnt tip (see background image in photo below). While I've seen such burnt effects on jet engine nozzles, I don't have the requisite knowledge to know for sure if such effects would occur on a space-faring ship. But at the end of the day, it would've been too much ado about nothing considering that the Wave Motion Engine (to which the nozzle attachs) is itself a piece of fiction anyway. So the fact it looks kinda cool is good enough for me to do it.  

Burnt effects on the Yamato's Exhaust Nozzle (background: reference photo of a car titanium exhaust)

A duo of parts making up the Exhaust Nozzle were both airbrushed with the burnt metal effect using the candy paint finish technique. Materials used include the Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black, Mr. Color Super Chrome Silver 2, Tamiya X-23 Clear Blue, Tamiya X-27 Clear Red, Mr. Clear Color i.e. GX106 Clear Orange; GX102 Deep Clear Red; GX 107 Clear Purple, Mr. Color Leveling Thinner as well as the Gaianotes T-06h Thinner. Note: Both thinners were used interchangeably. 

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 work-in-progress: Burnt effects on the Exhaust Nozzle [blue background]

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 work-in-progress: Burnt effects on the Exhaust Nozzle [black background]

Method-wise, the process began with the priming of the Exhaust Nozzle parts using Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 (Black). This Mr. Hobby product produces a fine matte-like coat of primer that forms a base for any subsequent metallic colors. Generally it's advisable to further apply a light coat of gloss black paint if you are looking to achieve an extremely shiny metallic finish. But in this case I wasn't looking for that extra shine so just the Mr. Finishing Surfacer primer coat was sufficient for me.

Stage 1: Exhaust Nozzle primed using Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 (Black)

And true to form, the subsequent metallic layer of Mr. Color Super Chrome Silver 2 did indeed look very shiny (see below) even without an added layer of gloss black paint. Normally at this stage I would then proceed to apply panel lines onto the nozzle. However it wasn't the right thing to do here because the burnt metal effect required additional layers of paint, which would've covered up most of the panel lines anyway. Surprisingly, panel-lining wasn't even required in the end as I'll explain later.

Stage 2: Exhaust Nozzle basecoated using Mr. Color Super Chrome Silver 2

Once the metallic paint, in this case the chrome silver, had been airbrushed onto the Exhaust Nozzle then it was time to apply the burnt metal effect. The underlying technique to this effect was the use of candy paint finishes on the bare metal layer. Starting off with a Clear Orange hue before transitioning to a brownish Clear Deep Red, followed by Clear Red then Clear Purple before ending with Clear Blue. Most of the hues were airbrushed in thin bands except for the final Clear Blue. Lastly, a light, thin coat of the Clear Purple hue was airbrushed over the entire nozzle in order to unify the colors. 

Stage 3: Exhaust Nozzle clear coated with four different clear hues ranging from ...

As mentioned earlier, I had ended up not doing any panel lining on the Exhaust Nozzle. To me, the contrast between the grooves on the nozzle and the overall burnt metal effect seemed sufficiently stark, such that no further work was needed. Not everything turned out well though as I damaged the burnt metal effect on a section of the nozzle. This I did when airbrushing a final light coat of Clear Purple to unify all existing hues. What happened was I had diluted the clear paint with too much thinner. And to compound things I had inadvertently set the airbrush paint flow velocity too high. Combined, these factors resulted in the underlying colors dissolving into unsightly paint smears.   

... orange, deep red, red, purple, and blue; each layer overlapping one another in aforementioned order

An airbrushing error in which too much thinner was used resulted in paint smears

An exhaust piece located at the inlet was also painted in a burnt metal look

To get an idea of how the Exhaust Nozzle would look in its usual operating environment namely outer space, I took some shots using a black background (see below). Because differently colored backgrounds usually cause optical illusions which affect how we view colors, I was surprised to find that the nozzle looked the same when viewed against either backgrounds. This certainly gives me something to chew on as I aspire to generate photos with a higher degree of color consistency.

Wave Motion Engine Exhaust Nozzle with burnt metal effects against a black background

Burnt metal effects on the Exhaust Nozzle, viewed from a slightly different angle

Unsightly paint smears on the Exhaust Nozzle cause by too much thinner being used when airbrushing

Unfortunately the paint smears are located in the more visible top side of the Exhaust Nozzle ...

... with the less visible underside receiving a much better paint job quality overall

Other painted exhaust piece located at the inlet shown here against a black background

My choice to do a burnt metal effect on the nozzle is not only likely to be far removed from reality, it is also not in keeping with how the ship actually looks in the anime (see below). So if you're a purist then you're not going to like the end result to my version of the Yamato one bit. And that's okay. In fact, not getting the colors exactly right would normally bug me no end. This wasn't the case this time around because I plan to do many more versions of the Space Battleship Yamato in slightly different color schemes, hence I left myself some room for a bit of creative interpretation on this particular kit.

Reference image of the Space Battleship Yamato with its rear engine engaged

At the end of it all, I am truly pleased to have tried out yet another new technique i.e. the burnt metal effect seen mainly on titanium car exhaust mufflers. Despite having messed up a section of the Wave Motion Engine Exhaust Nozzle by causing paint to smear, I am still elated with the end results seeing that it was my first attempt at this effect. And even if doing this doesn't turn out to be the right call, it was one I had to make, if for no other reason than to see if this effect can work on the iconic ship.

Truth be told I haven't been able to get much hobby-related work done this month as I got back into another love of mine ... sim racing. I had finally managed to get my almost ten-year-old Logitech G27 steering wheel/pedals/stick shift to work on a Windows 10 laptop. And while I try to maintain a fine balance between real life COVID-19 economic uncertainties, scale model kit as well as miniature figurine projects and sim racing ... I leave you with this famous piece of motorsport commentary from Murray Walker ... One light, two lights, three lights, four lights, five lights, and it's go, go, go!