How bout a rode hard and put away wet ?

[whiteman]

I think the island based F4U's are probably the roughest you will find, sand and coral blowing across them and no where to hide from the sun. Seems it was the early birdcages and -1A's that took the most abuse. They did repaint them when they could and what caused some funky looking color and "camo" patterns. The solid blue VMF-223 -1A i did the pilot paid his crew chief in beer to keep it clean and painted. I have a couple island based Hellcats as well that are a little uglier than the carrier based squads.

Some of the absolute ugliest were in the hands of the RNZAF, i get the impression some of those were held together by tape by wars end.

[Greebo]

I think with weathering it is all about context. An NMF P-51D based at a UK air base with concrete runways and hangars etc. is going to be better cared for than a Hurricane based on a desert air strip in 1942 or a Yak or a Focke Wulf on a front line field in Russia. Some aircraft (B-26, G4M, N1K2 etc.) were painted without primer which later caused massive paint chipping. British and commonwealth air forces tended to use their aircraft for much longer than US ones and so could get a lot more worn looking.

Modellers do often overdo it though, it's more about showing off their painting techniques than reproducing a real life aircraft. This is why I don't like using models and profiles etc as primary sources, you end up copying someone else's mistakes. Nowadays I am looking for decent original photos to let me make my own mind up about how dirty a plane should be.