Guide To Weathering And Aging Your Figures (Dry brush and Washes)


Weathering and aging, as posted a few minutes ago in a thread Redline started:

use three different methods for adding weathering and age to both my model kits and my TF kitbashes. Each of them has different degrees of usefulness.

Note - I work with the Ral Partha acrylics. I used to use the regular Testor's enamels but I found that A) I had more skill mixing and matching with acrylics and B) I'm lazy, so wash-up is easier. Your personal mileage may vary.

1. Dry-brush weathering: One can of matte black and one wide-bodied brush. Dab as much paint off of the brush as you can by "painting" a piece of newspaper with the excess paint. You want your brush to leave streaks of black (or just particles of it.) Test on spare parts until you've got the right effect. Matte Brown and Silver work as well, especially when combined; you get a nice "flaking paint, covered in dirt and grime" look.

2. Wet weathering: Honestly, I've found this works best with acrylic; I can't remember ever experimenting with enamels when I did this one. Dip your brush in water, then dip it right into the paint. Run it over the newspaper a few times until you've got a really runny residue of black paint. From there, you just go to town dousing the model kit/TF with the same mixture of water & paint on your brush. This fills in nooks and crannies REALLY fast, while leaving the outer shade of paint a bit darker. I love the end effect.

3. Similar to what sculpt-bot suggested, a quick tap of airbrush or spraypaint, from a good distance away, adds some interesting fade effects to a model kit. The best reference for this is any fan-made X-wing model kit.

Here are some end-result references for dry-brushing:
The head of this Y-wing:
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/gall...22106_ywing.htm

The nose of this Y-wing has a lot of airbrush weathering:
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/gallery10/ts_xwing2.htm

The ISD Glory, which I built, combines all 3:
http://www.starshipmodeler.org/gall...21306_glory.htm