Weathering in Style - Pt3

It has been a week since my last post, but I've not been slacking on the painting part..

After letting the model sit for the night I went back and beat up the top layer some more. I felt it was lacking damage - lol!

I also went into the larger areas and added some more SWM rust:

Then the fun began!
After a coating with gloss varnish (allowed to dry overnight), I started with oils.
Black, blue and brown oil paint was added in small dots, and then streaked down the model. This adds depth and tone to the overly bright metallic finish. It is a very messy process, but it is the one stage I enjoy the most.

Once that had dried, the next stage was adding pigments to simulate rust build up. I used the SWM powders of course! Four rust powders, and the Violet powder were used.
The violet is quite important as it add a certain patina to the finished result.
This process is very experimental and you need to play with the powders as you go along.

I also used the Exhaust Black on the exhausts (...).

Final stage was to seal with a matte varnish.
This picture has the body complete; the tracks need some highlighting, and the wheels (which I'll comment on next time) are in progress. You'll also note I added a dozer blade.

Weathering in Style - Pt2

After the night drying, it was time to put the base colours down. This is where I give a little something of my idea away.
My long time intent was to build an ork army that were obsessed with Iron Warriors; this is essentially the test model. Best part is, if I don't like it, it'll be fine; its metallic, and its orks!

First layer was Vallejo Model Air Gun Metal, followed by VMA Steel on higher points. It did this as the washes I'll be applying later will darken it up quite a bit.

I've had a few questions about airbrushing; the usual "how much do you dilute your paints?", "which brand of paint?", and "what pressure do you use?"
There really is only one answer to these questions; "yes" :).

Jokes aside, airbrushing is a very personal technique. This is what works for me:

• Harder & Steenbeck Infinity
• 0.15mm needle (for pretty much everything...)
• 10-12 psi, though I'll go up to 15-20 for metallics 
• dilute paints with 8% isopropyl alcohol
• paints used are Badger Minitaire, Vallejo Model Colour, Vallejo Model Air, P3, FW Airbrush paints, Scale75... and I guess we can now add Secret Weapon Miniatures!

The end result is... metallic. (I also did the obligatory hazard stripes)

then the work started...
Using light scratches to open up the paint, I applied water, and started rubbing with cotton buds.
At this point I'm always the least happy with the model; the base coat is too bright, and the scratches are too cartoonish. The next part will remedy that.

I had one issue with this stage. For whatever reason, some of the SWM acrylics I put down on the primer came up. I may not have allowed enough time for the Gun Metal to dry fully before starting the removal. 
Nice thing is, I can go in and stipple some more paint on later!
If I get to that stage today, I'll post an update.

Weathering in Style - Pt1

Hey all!

It has been a while - hit a bit of a painting funk late last year, and then got into intense mode with AdeptiCon 2016 prep.
The event was amazing as usual, but I'll post more about that later.

This post is about weathering - specifically a new line of Weathering Acrylic paints just released by our friend misterjustin at Secret Weapon Miniatures.

I've grabbed an old model, from a much delayed project, to try them out on, and of course I'm going to share my personal vision on a few of their many possible uses.

This Ork Battlewagon had a red and blue paint job - so I hit it with some rattle-can Rust-Red primer - which cost all of  $3! The wheels and turrets were popped off first.

Then I started it with the SWM Weathering Acrylics. I have to say I've got a whole new respect for Reaper (who produced the paints for SWM); their pigments are phenomenal quality, and the medium always seems perfect.
I pushed these through my airbrush, so they needed diluting. Quite a lot too - lots of pigment packed in there. I have to give these paints an A* rating, just from the first set I've used. And I have to give big props to Justin; these are the rust colours that you troll through other lines to find single examples of, or spend ages trying to mix.

I don't have a colour-by-colour series, but they went on in the following order:

• Rust Shadow - this is quite green, so it went into areas where I wanted the darkest, oldest rust to be represented.
• Old Rust - this went over the Shadow, to add some purple/brown depth, and into panel recesses.
• Brown Rust
• Red Rust
• Orange Rust - these last three went on in a random-ish pattern, trying to break up the surface features, whilst trying to keep the lighter ones near the top.

You'll note I didn't use the Yellow Rust from this Weathering Set; this one is more transparent, and I'll be using it later to represent staining.

Chipping medium - light on the panels, heavy on the working surfaces - was then sprayed on. This is drying overnight.

Tomorrow I'll be doing some masking and starting the base colouring.

Stay tuned!