"How to "fade" paint on starship miniatures?" Topic

I've acquired a batch of old GZG ESU miniatures, from the first series. I wanted to paint them in my current paint scheme (Reaper Military Green, with large areas of a red color), but would like to fade them.

I plan to use them as older ESU ships in the reserve/mothballs, to be used in either desperation or in star systems in the backwaters. Ie, places where first line newer ships aren't likely to be stationed.

I am not sure about "weathering" the ships per se, but I wanted to at least fade them to show that they are old ships. Any suggestions as to how to do this?

Floquil in their Pollyscale paint line have a product called "dust". A very diluted coat drybrushed on may give you the effect you seek.

lighten the color in areas that would get "wear and tear"; any moving parts or area that might connect to a dock

Keep in mind that Floquil discontinued Pollyscale last year.

I don't know if it applies for your models, but slightly different shades inside adjacent "panel" lines can help with an illusion of being in operation and getting subsequent repairs for some time. Per Redroom's suggestion, mixing in a bit of gray instead of pure white can add to the subtleties.

More radical color differentiation between panels can also be effective at representing hasty repairs or slipshod upkeep. Having a few parts in bare metal to indicate unpainted replacement parts can look very good, and helps tell a story of the ship's past battle damage.

Would lightening up the base coat colors help the mini look older and faded?

I also thought of simply using some dark brownish wash I had; normally I don't get good results with washes, but this might be a case where the lousier it looks, the better. :)

Hmm… I might try differing shades for the raised panel areas to indicate newer replacements/repairs.

I use a combination of washes and a little dry brushing. I do it multiple times.

Here's what I have painted so far. I did a lighter shade of the Military Green, with the regular red color I use on the modern ESU ships. Ship on the right is the older faded ESU ship, ship on the left is a modern one.

I find that I like the faded green. The red, don't know. I don't want to lighten up the red and find it is too pinkish. I had thought to darken up the red with a dark brown wash, but have not tried it yet.

Any suggestions before I mess with the red?

I was able to get some help on the Facebook page, and added some yellow to the red color, yielding a lighter red that should work okay.

What caused the paint to fade? Were the ships parked in orbit around the star, and stellar radiation eventually degraded the paint? If so, maybe only one side of the ship shows fading.

Some bright chrome spots give the impression of unpainted hasty repairs and retrofits.

I'm thinking just old age, frequent exposure to strong light (stellar radiation is hard on the paint job).

I haven't finished the test ship; it fell into a low priority slot until winter.