Musings: Let us talk about the weather(ing)

Welcome to the second iteration of "Musings". The topic for today is the weathering that I did on my Sicaran Battle Tank that was posted a few days ago. I chose to focus mainly on the dirt, dust and grime for this post since the weathering for the paint is mainly in the paint job itself (gotta love "Iron Hands recipe, by FW). The amount of work that can get done by someone just asking me to make something like this.

Note, this blog was meant to drop earlier but.. The gaming news have been quite clogged up due to something in the U.K.. a reopening of some sort.

And now, the weather:

As mentioned in the intro, this post will focus on the dirt, dust and grime on my Sicaran. The sponsons and part of the main gun barrels were weathered with a sponging technique.

Materials used:
   * Smoke wash (Vallejo)
   * Mixed Weathering powder made from dry pastels (Dark/light/mid tone-earth and black)
   * Light Earth Weathering powder(Forgeworld)
   * Dark Earth Weathering powder (Forgeworld)
   * Burnt Umber oil paint (W&N)
   * White/Mineral spirits, low odour
   * Matte Varnish (water based, store brand)
   - Supplies listed in the previous Musing blog not listed here

In the mixing "bowl": Mixed weathering powder and a dot of smoke wash. Right: Supplies!

Starting from a similar point as last time (but with and added "grille-bit" to serve as a track piece in lieu of a proper track piece), the entire model was given a black base coat. Following the base coat, pewter rub'n'buff wax was applied to the left side as a solid coat while it was just drybrushed on to the right side. The grille got a drybrushed covering of Formula p3 Pig Iron. After the base coats had dried properly (hours and hours...) a black wash was given to the coated left side while the drybrushed right side received the "Iron Hands" treatment.

The coated area received two coats of varnish (for reasons to be explained) and a wash of smoke, powders, a drop of varnish and water was mixed up and applied in the fashion seen above. I do this as a base colour for the rest of the weathering process.

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Time to focus on the coated side. Thinned burnt umber oil paint was applied (1) and while this was still wet, Dark Earth weathering powder was "pushed" into the oil paint to give it texture. A small amount of Light Earth was mixed into the Dark Earth and the process was repeated (3).

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To finish the coated side, a small amount of Light Earth powder was blended into the existing coat using a drop of mineral spirits. Note: keep the liquid amount to a minimum. Or splash it on and get miserable and have to redo it all (sadly speaking from experience here...).

On the Iron Hands side, Dark Earth powder and white spirit were mixed in a similar manner to the oil-and-powder previously mentioned (2). This was later given a dusting of Light Earth and blended together with a mix of Light and Dark powder (3). Then a small amount of white spirits was applied to affix the powder to the wall.

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On to the grille. The same "oil-wash" as previous was applied in the recesses of the grille followed with a sprinkling of the mixed powder (1). More powder (Light and Dark) was added on and pushed into the oil paint to create a mottled, muddy effect (2).

Excessive powder got dusted off (and added to my "mixed bowl). the grille got clean up a bit on the raised parts and a subsequent dusting of graphite powder was rubbed on to create the effect of metal shining through after wear. Graphite dust like this is obtained by more or less...scraping a pencil and can be used to create worn metal effects on tanks, gun barrels and girlfriends... I mean, whatever miniature surface you can think of. It can be messy to apply though.

I hope this post have been helpful. This is by no means an be-all-end-all post, and the colouring can of course be changed depending on the colouring and dust type you are after.

//Nevindar