Light weathering

I keep a little screw top bottle of thinners for cleaning modelling paint brushes. As most such painting is black/red oxide/weathered timber colour the thinners is normally gunge colour. It's the ideal colour for gentle weathering and it's never exactly the same twice. :-) I dullcoat the original paint job, but if the weathering over the top wears a little it will either look even better or it can have another weathering.

Regards, Greg.P.

I use "Ceramcoat" acrylics, a very thin wash in a color close to the car color. I dip the brush in the paint, then into water, then brush it on the car. If it's too heavy, I just dip in the water again and spread more water on. Then I go at it with a hiar drier to even everything out and prevent "puddles" of color. Since Ceramcoat dries dead flat, no additional coating is needed.

Don

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There's NO one color that's best. For most items you want a wash that's similar to the original car's color, but considerably DARKER. Washes create shadows in deep recesses, and around fine details.

The wash is followed with a 'dry brush' application of a LIGHTER shade of the base color.Washes and dry brushing are NOT 'weathering' ... they are to create artificial shadows and highlights, making the car look similar to the prototype in that regard.

'Weathering' is a different animal. It tries to represent the effects of being outside ... sun fading, dirt accumulation, corrosion, wood deterioration, peeling paint, etc. Weathering DARKENS light colors, and LIGHTENS dark colors. Weathering tries to bring everything to a neutral tan or gray color.

For 'weathering' with the airbrush, try overspraying with lighter or darker shade of the base color. You can also mist or splatter any muddy brownish or grayish colors. Real weathering is a complex blend of effects. ALWAYS use at least THREE colors, only SLIGHTLY different, five is better. You want to build up a color 'texture', but not crate a 'clown face'.

Some work can be done with a regular brush ... like stippling mud splatters, rust streaks, etc..

Pastel chalks are perhaps the best technique when you're starting out. These can produce a whole variety of dirty or dusty effects. If you louse it up, you can put the car in some warm soapy water, wash it off, dry it, and try again. ALL other techniques are 'do it right the FIRST time", or else! Once you get it looking good, you can seal the chalk down with dullcoat. This LESSENS the effect, thus it's hard to overdo it. If you want more, just apply a second layer. Sneak up on it. Once you go too far, it's a mess.

If you DO go a bit too far, you can often salvage the job by overspraying the whole car LIGHTLY with the base color. This will tone down the weathering, and produce a faded look that is often desirable. that's usually what *I* do ... SLIGHTLY overdo it, then back off with the overspray. YMMV.

Good weathering uses a blend of all above techniques.

Dan Mitchell ============

I spray the car with dullcoat, let dry, then use a wash of Polly-S Grimy Black.

Chris Curren

With me it varies , I like to use different combinations of straight Dry Brushing or Dirty Washes and or Colored Chalks That's worked pretty well for me . I also build a lot or armor and Sci-Fi and you need to really weather your Armor Kits.

... cyberborg ..........

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