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Weathering

Add Realism

Combat is dirty, grimy, and bloody. Materiel will rust and oil will leak. Capturing these details on your minis will make them come alive in a whole new way. By using these simple ideas you will come a long way in adding that realism to your army and make them come alive on the tabletop.

Rust

Add spots of Dry Rust Effects Warpaint™ to the metal. This can be used to cover up any mistakes you are unhappy with and can tie the whole miniature together nicely.

Remember that rust tends to form in the joints and bends of the metal as well as the exposed parts that gets scraped a lot. By thinning the Dry Rust with Quickshade Mixing Medium you can create a “Rust Wash”, that will help you achieve this effect.

Sponging

To create chipped metal, especially battle-worn armour, sponging is an easy way of getting a great result. You’ll need a sponge, the finer the better. Most kitchen sponges will do just fine.

The best result is using either a really light colour, like Brainmatter Beige, or a really dark colour such as Oak Brown – What you want to do is put some paint on your pallet, and then dip your sponge in the paint, and then, like drybrushing, wipe most of it off again, and carefully dab the sponge over the surface.

This method can also work as a highlight layer on a model saving you a lot of time. For an example, you can use a light silver over a dark metal to create the chipping effect, which also works as the highlight layer.

Streaking

Streaking is a great way to get some easy micro detailing on a weathered model. Streaks is usually rust-runners or dirt-runners on larger surfaces, and with army painting, it’s a good idea to find easy ways of creating good looking details on your models.

The easiest way of making them, is to either use a watered down Warpaints (Like dry rust effect) or use washes (Like Dark Tone or Flesh Tone) Make sure you take some time to think about how the streaks would run over a surface when the model would be resting/standing still, and not just in the current pose. This adds another level of realism to your models.

Classic weathering products

Dipit says

I hope these tips inspire you to experiment with weathering. It’s a fun and rewarding way to paint your army!

Dipit says