- Member DIN
- S144
Fifty shades of Weathering:
Hey all and welcome to my weathering tutorial. I've had several people ask how I do my weathering on my Mk. VII armor (pictured below) so I decided I'll do a full weathering tutorial from how I choose how to paint my armor, chipping layers, ink washing, acrylic washing, and even how I make "real" fake mud. Each of these sections of weathering will be followed with a short reel posted to my Instagram for those who prefer to watch the process as opposed to reading a whole thread.
This will be a living tutorial where i'll be updating in sections as I add the different layers as well as when I think of and learn new ways to improve my own techniques. Its important to remember there is more than one way to do your weathering and this is not a be all end all tutorial. Thank you to anyone who stays with me on my slow write up and learns from my experiences.
Part One: Paint selection
For paint selections I always use spraypaint since thats the easiest for me to work with and I dont need any extra equipment like a paintgun.
When choosing my colors I like to start with a base coat of something like Rustoleum metallic Aluminum. For my Mk. VII that I painted in Haubted Rubelite coating I chose a metallic gold as the base. Choosing a metallic base helps us for later when we get to the chipping layers.
Next up is choosing your base color. The base color can be tricky, especially if youre basing your armor off of an in game coating, you dont want to choose a color thats too dark or your weathering might not show through. When planning to do heavier weathering I choose a color thats close the the base I want, in terms of vibrancy, but is brighter than it needs to be (ie: picture below is my Haunted rubelite before and after ink and acrylic washes).
Something to keep in mind when choosing your paints is whether or not your paints will react negatively with each other. Here is a graph of general compatibility between paints.
Part Two: Paint chipping
Starting with the first layer of weathering is the "chipping" layer. As mentioned in the first section, the chipping layer will be the base layer paint that we first put down. Shown below is my example piece in its Rustoleum metallic Aluminum.
After getting the base coat of metallic down we go onto masking off edges and various parts to give the illusion that the armor or prop is well used and isn't fresh off the paint rack. For masking there are many substances you can use, ie: liquid latex, toothpaste, mustard, salt, ect. My preferred method for masking is toothpaste, its easy to find, cheap, and can be applied in a much easier and smaller amount than liquid latex and without any discoloration that mustard might leave.
Now, with the toothpaste as my masking material I like to use one of these skewers for application.
Something like the skewer makes application of the toothpaste over long straight edges easier and help when applying scratch marks. When masking off for you chipping its important to remember not to glob on a bunch in a single area as it doesn't look realistic. Instead when masking its better to do lots of really small bits that (overall) covers more area than it is to do large splotches that strip away far more paint in a single area. Examples of each:
Small bit masking:
Large spot masking:
Coming soon...
When applying the toothpaste for masking the way I found that masks off the best is to cover just a little bit on an edge and then build up in small dots and dashes like shown below:
Once you've masked off sufficiently to your liking you can go ahead and coat or armor or prop in your color of choice and wait for it to finish drying. After letting your paint dry, removing the toothpaste masking is as easy as taking a damp cloth and firmly wiping off the masked areas. Some areas might need some extra care to remove all the masking but even if you leave some it'll add a (secret) extra layer to your weathering in the form of bubbled and potentially even splitting paint.
And additional step you can take before getting to your intended base color coat is add a layer of black and remask just a little bit around the edges of first layer of masking. This creates an interesting layering of the paint thats draws the eyes all over your prop of armor.
Example:
To be continued......
Hey all and welcome to my weathering tutorial. I've had several people ask how I do my weathering on my Mk. VII armor (pictured below) so I decided I'll do a full weathering tutorial from how I choose how to paint my armor, chipping layers, ink washing, acrylic washing, and even how I make "real" fake mud. Each of these sections of weathering will be followed with a short reel posted to my Instagram for those who prefer to watch the process as opposed to reading a whole thread.
This will be a living tutorial where i'll be updating in sections as I add the different layers as well as when I think of and learn new ways to improve my own techniques. Its important to remember there is more than one way to do your weathering and this is not a be all end all tutorial. Thank you to anyone who stays with me on my slow write up and learns from my experiences.
Part One: Paint selection
For paint selections I always use spraypaint since thats the easiest for me to work with and I dont need any extra equipment like a paintgun.
When choosing my colors I like to start with a base coat of something like Rustoleum metallic Aluminum. For my Mk. VII that I painted in Haubted Rubelite coating I chose a metallic gold as the base. Choosing a metallic base helps us for later when we get to the chipping layers.
Next up is choosing your base color. The base color can be tricky, especially if youre basing your armor off of an in game coating, you dont want to choose a color thats too dark or your weathering might not show through. When planning to do heavier weathering I choose a color thats close the the base I want, in terms of vibrancy, but is brighter than it needs to be (ie: picture below is my Haunted rubelite before and after ink and acrylic washes).
Something to keep in mind when choosing your paints is whether or not your paints will react negatively with each other. Here is a graph of general compatibility between paints.
Part Two: Paint chipping
Starting with the first layer of weathering is the "chipping" layer. As mentioned in the first section, the chipping layer will be the base layer paint that we first put down. Shown below is my example piece in its Rustoleum metallic Aluminum.
After getting the base coat of metallic down we go onto masking off edges and various parts to give the illusion that the armor or prop is well used and isn't fresh off the paint rack. For masking there are many substances you can use, ie: liquid latex, toothpaste, mustard, salt, ect. My preferred method for masking is toothpaste, its easy to find, cheap, and can be applied in a much easier and smaller amount than liquid latex and without any discoloration that mustard might leave.
Now, with the toothpaste as my masking material I like to use one of these skewers for application.
Something like the skewer makes application of the toothpaste over long straight edges easier and help when applying scratch marks. When masking off for you chipping its important to remember not to glob on a bunch in a single area as it doesn't look realistic. Instead when masking its better to do lots of really small bits that (overall) covers more area than it is to do large splotches that strip away far more paint in a single area. Examples of each:
Small bit masking:
Large spot masking:
Coming soon...
When applying the toothpaste for masking the way I found that masks off the best is to cover just a little bit on an edge and then build up in small dots and dashes like shown below:
Once you've masked off sufficiently to your liking you can go ahead and coat or armor or prop in your color of choice and wait for it to finish drying. After letting your paint dry, removing the toothpaste masking is as easy as taking a damp cloth and firmly wiping off the masked areas. Some areas might need some extra care to remove all the masking but even if you leave some it'll add a (secret) extra layer to your weathering in the form of bubbled and potentially even splitting paint.
And additional step you can take before getting to your intended base color coat is add a layer of black and remask just a little bit around the edges of first layer of masking. This creates an interesting layering of the paint thats draws the eyes all over your prop of armor.
Example:
To be continued......
