Round Four Report from Abstracity - Part 2

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Minidragon continues:

Now came the weathering! This can be daunting. At this point you probably have a pretty decent-looking paint job, and you might start worrying about ruining all your nice work! "Damn the torpedoes!" I said and forged ahead. The key is to take it slow and not get carried away with your battle damage/weathering. I painted on dings/scratches/stains in small sections, then surveyed the effect for a bit before continuing. In this way, I made myself carefully consider whether or not a section needed more work before carrying on to a new area.

I've basically got three types of "weathering" on here; stains, scratches, and chips. Here's how I did each:

Scratches:

These were the easiest. I mixed a small amount of black paint with brown ink and (using a 3/0 brush that is in very good shape - it's vital to use a good brush here) I simply painted on streaks and dots. I thought about how this damage happened when I painted this on...I imagined bullets glancing off and rocks/shrapnel pelting the hull. Because of this, I painted many of the scratches on starting from the nose end and dragging the brush toward the tail. Painting the scratches this way makes lines that are thicker at the front.

Stains:

I used the same paint ink mix from the scratches, but applied it in splotches and puddles. I used multiple coats for some stains to get a darker shade.

Chips:

Wherever I wanted a chip, I painted a splotch of black (I was careful to keep the edges irregular). Good places for chips are edges and places that look like they'd receive lots of wear. After the black was dry I painted on some silver paint, making sure I left a thin line of black showing....DONE! Instant chips!

The seat and other black bits were based with black (surprised?), and highlighted by mixing in white and painting the lighter shades on in successively smaller areas. I decided the machine needed more controls than just the two sticks, so I painted on some buttons, a little radar screen, and a throttle indicator. Last, I painted a couple small bits of the gun silver.