Weathering Paint:

The first thing you're gonna want to so is get your colors applied. It's not always necessary to weather all your colors. In this project, I'm only weathering the red stripes. If you have multiple colors and want to only weather one of them, simply lay up your primary color then clear coat it (you can also choose to have your ground coat as a metal color and weather through a topcoat to reveal the steel underneath). Once that's finished, sand that down and apply your secondary color.




. . . also, doin' the wings up. Be sure to spray in light coats to avoid any bleeding through under the tape:




Shown beside the project is a piece of 3M Scotch-Brite. You can choose to use a red piece for a coarser look (320 scratch equivalent) or go with the grey (1000 scratch equivalent); I'm using the red here:




Gently rub the Scotch-Brite pad over the painted surface from front to back in a complete stroke (never go from back to front) It's best to focus most of the scratch on any high spots or high crowns in the panels as this is where the paint would be most likely to wear out:




The wing to get rubbed down from front to back focusing on high spots and blunt edges where the paint is most likely to be worn away:




With the paint worn, apply all decals you intend to "dirty up":




Now, clearcoat over the project so we can move on to the next step. You want a layer of clear between the two, so (should you make a mistake on the next part) you won't have to start over from the beginning. Do not get too heavy with the clear or the features in the plastic will fade as the project progresses:




Sand down the clear with 1000 Scotch-Brite for the next step:




Oil Staining:

We start with a puddle of black paint and a little piece of Scotch-Brite. You can use a cotton ball or whatever floats your boat:



Dip the pad into the paint and tamp it out on the rag until very little paint is left on the pad:




Oil stains can be just about anywhere on space craft that fly through gobs of crap in space. On a car, you'll want it coming from the wheel wells or edges around the hood:




Now, stick your finger in it and drag it back in the same direction the weathering is (front to back):




Don't overdo the oil as it's only a layer in a larger puzzle:




Tie It Together:

Now we start to shade panels so everything ties together. I've laid up a slight shade at the front parts of the engines where crud and whatnot are likely to pass by when being sucked into the engine. I'm also masking the flaps to highlight the inner edge:




Like so:




Something you can opt to do is to spray in your panel a lil darker than usual then . . . .

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/73/shade2f.jpg[IMG] <-- this image is missing


. . . . wear it out with the gray Scotch-Brite pad. This will give the panel lines a feathered look and not so sharp:

[IMG]http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5082/shade3.jpg



Dirt:

Some airbrushes are equipped with a spatter valve. By turning this out, one can create various spatter effects from rough to coarse. If your airbrush does not have this valve, you can get close to the same effect by turning your air pressure way down and varying the viscosity of your paint:




The effect is meant to look like either carbon scoring or fresh dirt/grime clinging to the body of the project (fresh meaning "it hasn't worn off as it's recently acquired"):




I focus this effect on areas where the ships mechanical parts are at work:





Flak Damage:

In this case, one might call this "frak damage"! Ha, ha, get it? Fra . . . erm nevermind. Start this out by grabbing some stencil maker which can be found at your local Walmart in the girly craft section:




Using a drill and bit, make a hole in the plastic sheet. It doesn't need to be perfectly round:




Hold the sheet close to your work and lightly spray in the stenciled hole. Try not to get too heavy on the paint or it will smudge where the stencil contacts the project:




Your holes will end up looking like this:




Now, shade them in the direction which the blast was received. In this case, the ship was shot from the three o'clock high position, meaning "off to the side an from the upper front":




Now, these holes need some tearing action (or oil drippage, whichever you prefer). Start by pulling out your airbrush with the fluid needle turned all the way in (no fluid can pass):




Now, keeping the tip of the airbrush angled and touching your work, we pull back on the air valve all the way back allowing only the air to hiss through. Begin slowly opening your fluid valve at this point (counterclockwise from closed). It will slowly begin laying paint on the project in a very small pattern until eventually it gets enough buildup in material that the air starts to stream it in different directions:




As you can see, you'll need to angle your airbrush in the same direction the shading was applied:




Don't forget to beat the hell out of the bottom, but whatever you do, don't make it symmetrical - everything needs to be random:




. . . . and here's the finished product:



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