- 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:
Courtesy of BrokenHawk
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:
Video overview loading......
Part Three: Ink washing, aka oil layer & staining
- Important note -
If youre planning to do oil spots and full color stain then you must first stain your prop or armor. The color of the first ink layer can be affected by the second layer (ex: Doing brown oil spots and then staining with a pink of blue would make your oil look strange). Additionally this layer is all about experimenting with what works best for your build so have fun with it.
For the next layer, what I refer to as the oil layer, I use an alcohol based ink. The particular brand I use is called Pixiss, I specifically use this brand because you can buy them in sets of browns and blacks which is exactly what we want for oil and stains. Theoretically you could do some intersting effects with other more vibrant colors but thats for a different section. Link will be posted below.
Some things you'll need for this section are:
Alcohol based ink (Pixiss)
Isopropyl Alcohol
A small mixing glass or cup
Paint brush to match the area youre gonna be covering
A rag you dont care about.
There's a couple ways you can go about using your ink, the two ways I like to use them like I mentioned already is to simulate oil patches and to stain my base color. For staining your base color you can use a thinned down black or brown ink. And for the oil patches I've found the Cocoa ink in the brown ink box from Pixiss works the best. I ran out of Cocoa for this tutorial so I substituted with Caramel color ink.
To stain your armor you'll need to mix about 60% ink and 40% isopropyl alcohol in your mixing cup, its okay to start with more ink and work in more Isopropyl alcohol as needed (find the right balance for you). It's important to remember that this stuff will spread a lot even with a small amount and isn't hard to mix more if needed, so work in small batches if you can. Once mixed you can lather your mixture onto your desired armor or prop part with your brush and let it set. Alternatively you can use a spray bottle to cover a larger area faster and then brush it in.
This isn't the final step so its okay that its really dark or brown.
Once the ink has dried onto your part (it dries fast), you can take your rag and dab some isopropyl alcohol on it. Using that rag you can start to gently wipe off your prop or part to remove your desired amount of ink. What I like to do is gently wipe off the flat areas as best I can and near the panel lines and crevices ill wipe of just enough to leave a bit "shadow" around them. This creates a bit of build up that amplifies our dust layer later.
- Alternatively to all that. You can take a cotton swab or Q-tip and go in to individually build up and stain the specific parts you want without having to stain your whole prop or part. This also applies to the next part for oil stains. -
OIL SPOTS!
- Loading in progress -
Part Four: Acrylic washing, aka dust layer
Loading in progress.....
Part Five: Special effects (Rust, Blood, and Guts)
Loading in progress.....
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:
Courtesy of BrokenHawk
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:
Video overview loading......
Part Three: Ink washing, aka oil layer & staining
- Important note -
If youre planning to do oil spots and full color stain then you must first stain your prop or armor. The color of the first ink layer can be affected by the second layer (ex: Doing brown oil spots and then staining with a pink of blue would make your oil look strange). Additionally this layer is all about experimenting with what works best for your build so have fun with it.
For the next layer, what I refer to as the oil layer, I use an alcohol based ink. The particular brand I use is called Pixiss, I specifically use this brand because you can buy them in sets of browns and blacks which is exactly what we want for oil and stains. Theoretically you could do some intersting effects with other more vibrant colors but thats for a different section. Link will be posted below.
Some things you'll need for this section are:
Alcohol based ink (Pixiss)
Isopropyl Alcohol
A small mixing glass or cup
Paint brush to match the area youre gonna be covering
A rag you dont care about.
There's a couple ways you can go about using your ink, the two ways I like to use them like I mentioned already is to simulate oil patches and to stain my base color. For staining your base color you can use a thinned down black or brown ink. And for the oil patches I've found the Cocoa ink in the brown ink box from Pixiss works the best. I ran out of Cocoa for this tutorial so I substituted with Caramel color ink.
To stain your armor you'll need to mix about 60% ink and 40% isopropyl alcohol in your mixing cup, its okay to start with more ink and work in more Isopropyl alcohol as needed (find the right balance for you). It's important to remember that this stuff will spread a lot even with a small amount and isn't hard to mix more if needed, so work in small batches if you can. Once mixed you can lather your mixture onto your desired armor or prop part with your brush and let it set. Alternatively you can use a spray bottle to cover a larger area faster and then brush it in.
This isn't the final step so its okay that its really dark or brown.
Once the ink has dried onto your part (it dries fast), you can take your rag and dab some isopropyl alcohol on it. Using that rag you can start to gently wipe off your prop or part to remove your desired amount of ink. What I like to do is gently wipe off the flat areas as best I can and near the panel lines and crevices ill wipe of just enough to leave a bit "shadow" around them. This creates a bit of build up that amplifies our dust layer later.
- Alternatively to all that. You can take a cotton swab or Q-tip and go in to individually build up and stain the specific parts you want without having to stain your whole prop or part. This also applies to the next part for oil stains. -
OIL SPOTS!
- Loading in progress -
Part Four: Acrylic washing, aka dust layer
Loading in progress.....
Part Five: Special effects (Rust, Blood, and Guts)
Loading in progress.....
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