**Please note, the weathering effect discussed in this post should be used with metal and hard plastic models only. Enamel paint can dissolve soft plastics. However, for softer plastic, apply the effects below, but use acrylic/ water based paint instead. A great resource for acrylic techniques is this site – http://www.angelfire.com/mech/jinsaotome/guides.html.
There are many techniques when it comes to weathering your plastic models. That said, this post is about using what you have. And I presume, if you modify or make models, you have some enamel paints around aka Testors. Other useful supplies are chalk pastels, spray enamel equipment, and weathering palettes. While I’m not going to touch on any of those today, you can read more about some of them here.
Supplies:
You will need a large soft paintbrush brush, a thin paint brush brush, a foam craft brush or paper towel (not pictured) and a toothbrush or hard bristled paintbrush.
You will also of course need paint – for the below I used Gloss Wood, Flat Rust and Flat Rubber. However these are simply a red-orange, dark brown and beige. If you have other colors, try mixing them to make similar shades.
Optional: Mat Finish Spray & sand or dirt
- Paint details. Dont worry too much about being exact, as you’ll be painting over these with rust and dirt shortly.
2. Coat roughly with a rust shade.
3. Use a foam prish or paper towel to dab the new paint layer to even out the texture.
4. Optional: sprinkle sand or dirt over the surface of the object.
5. Use a tooth brush or other hard bristle brush with thinned down dark brown (rubber) paint. Fill the brush with the thinned down paint, then, holding the brush in your hand, flick your wrist in toward the direction you want the paint to splatter. If you’re willing to get messy, hold the brush up close to the object you’re weathering and run your thumb over the bristles. If you’ve used sand, some of the paint will get absorbed by it.
6. Use your light brown/beige (wood) paint with your tooth brush or hard bristle brush. For this you will use a dry brush technique. Lightly dip the brush tip in the paint, then dab the brush on a paper towel. This will leave a minimal amount of paint on the brush. Use this to emulate mud and dirt splatters, or other similar residue. If you are weathering a vehicle, add this to the tire tread and bottom portion of the vehicle bumper, etc.
7. If you’d like, spray the finished piece with mat finish spray. This will make the overall surface appear less glossy and protect the paint and added sand/dirt from coming off with wear.
And that’s it! You’re done.
To see some more weathered items, go here.
Have you used any weathering techniques before. What have you done? How has it turned out?
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