Painting Vehicles – Part 2, Weathering a StormSword

In Part 1 I talked about the base coating. including some basic modulation done to add highlight and colour variation.

Here's the quite flat looking basecoated model, following very similar steps to the Valk in article 1.

In this part I’ll talk you through the rest of what I do normally. I say normally because sometimes i’ll omit a step, or add another such as a colour dot/blend, but in general most of my vehicles get the treatment from the preceding and this article.

Decals.

I’m not proud, I’ll use em these days :)

It’s Important to plan the placement of Decals before you start, and to make sure that your model isn't dusty. I’ve tried to decal a model that's been sat in the paint queue a while and gathered some dust.

It’s a bad Idea.

 

I use Micro sol and set, Realistically I only use sol if I’m trying to bend or fit the decal to an awkward surface, set usually does the job for nice flat areas like this.

With the decals cut out and a shallow dish of water handy I’m ready to go.

 

The Decals get soaked, 1 at a time, untill the transfer is just lifting from the paper.

For small decals i just pick them up with a paintbrush or needle. Larger decals need to be slid from the backing paper onto the model to avoid tearing.

Give the area to receive the decal a slight wetting with mirco set before you place the transfer, this will help adhesion.

  

Once the transfer is in place, you can shuffle it around ising the brush to slide it or push at the slightly raised edge.

Once the decal is where you want it, a light brushing of micro set and you should be fine to leave it to dry in place.

 

Apply all the decals to the model before the next step.

 

Chips and scratches.

 

I’m going to show you a couple of different tools I use for scratches and chips. you can use any or all of these on a single vehicle as they will give you slightly different results.

 

The paint I use for scratches and chips is a mixture of greys and a very dark brown.

I find these colours work well with any paint surface, but if you want to try and simulate primer or rust you can always very these tones.

 

The real trick is not to blend the paint, and leave a marbled mix as above. this means that your chips and scratches will very slightly in colour.

The three tools I use for this are - (from top to bottom) a make up applicator sponge, a piece of blister foam (held in a haemostat) and a size 000 brush.

  

 

The large pores of the blister foam make for good, deep, large scratches, I usually use this on the front of the hull, and anywhere there are likely to be frequent impacts and abrasions.

 

 

 

 

The smaller pattern of the make up applicator is excellent for normal wear and tear and chipping such as you find on frequently eroded surfaces and edges.

 

  

The ultimate controllability of using the edge of a small brush is good for areas where a sponge would cause too much transfer to unwanted areas.

 

 

Here's the scratched tank.

 

As a last step, I use some of the base colour of the hull to weather in the decals.

 

 

 

 

I take this opportunity to visit any areas without paint, such as headlights, and other details to make sure everything is at least base coated.

Seal with gloss coat.

I airbrush on undiluted Klear to give myself a gloss surface for the next stages of weathering.

The next steps us turpentine based products which not only works best on a gloss surface, it can be moved an manipulated with ease. sealing the paint below is not only enabling it protects the paint.

Weathering

For me, the first step of weathering is a wash. I years gone by I would have mixed my own oil paint and turps wash, but MiG now make one ready mixed, so on it goes. it defines panel lines and bolts, so it goes everywhere.

 

Once dry this wash can be further manipulated to give a weathered effect.

 

Using a soft brush slightly damp with turpentine the wash can me lifted and moved around. most usefully the wash that has gathered around the bolts and panel lined can be gently dragged downwards to create streaking.

 

Oil

 

A combination of airbrushed brown ink placed around seals and bolts and a burnt umber oil wash targeted on fuel lines and barrels gives us a nice shiny oil like appearance. some of this is also layer onto the freshly drybrushed gun barrel.

Dust

Dust is layered on using weathering powders and white spirit. I’ve found the best way to apply this for a dusty finish is to wet the area with white spirit using the airbrush, then sprinkle on the powder, and to finally spray more white spirit.

ne mindful though to use a low pressure on the airbrush or you risk blowing the powder away.

 

Soot

 

This really couldn't be easier, just gently airbrush black paint where there would be soot and scorching.

Verdigris

Vallejos verdigris glaze is the key to this effect. all the brass plates are treated to a layer of this paint, watered down to a glaze consistency. you can afford to flood, and to allow runoff.

once this has dry completely, go in with a hard brush and you will find it easy to dust the glaze off the raised surfaces leaving a convincing build up in the recesses.

 

      

Mud splashes

A mixture of weathering powders and matte varnish, splatted onto the model using a brush with stiff bristles and a scalpel created quite natural looking mudsplashes.

 

Worn metal

The last step for me is to go in with a soft lead pencil and run the side of the lead along any raised edges I feel need additional wear.

the before and after below should show you the impact of this simple step.

   

That’s it, that’s what I do. you can see the results below or in my previous post.

I hope that’s been useful to some of you and that you'll have a go at some of these simple (and not so simple) techniques, and If anyone has any questions I’m always happy to try and help.

Thanks for reading!