This is my entry to the Sheffield Irregulars monthly competition. The challenge this month was weathering, so I pulled a random blister out of the lead mountain - in this case a Shard something-or-other (I forget what) from the Vor game, now long defunct.
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[img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/20986-1/ShardMecha_Front2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/20989-1/ShardMecha_Back.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/20993-1/ShardMecha_Right.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/20991-1/ShardMecha_Left.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/20983-1/ShardMecha_Front1.jpg[/img]
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I'm fairly pleased with the way he turned out. I think I could have gone a bit stronger with the weathering effects, but to be honest, I just ran out of time. I shall definately have to find some way of crowbaring him into a game somewhere!
Your C&C are most welcome!
nice
Very nice. Was discussing Mecha just last night, and what with the current vehicle painting binge weathering is something I've been doing a bit of recently, and have planned for tonight.
My basic routine is:-
Paint your vehicle, and admire your work for a few minutes, since you are now going to muck up that nice paint job.
Lightly drybrush with a silver colour to pick out edges and rivet heads etc. Remember that the front of a vehicle will impact branches and stuff, so there will be more wear here and possibly horizontal scratches on the sides.
Black Ink your model. With figures this is often one of the final stages, but with vehicles it comes earlier in the process, before the dust and mud.
Dust. Vehicles moving cross country will throw up lots of dust. Most of this will settle on the tops of features and the vehicle, although a little will adhere to the sides. For this stage I lightly drybrush the upper surfaces and the sides with GW Bleached Bone.
Once the dust (and more importantly your drybrush) is dry, start on the mud. Mud will obviously be all over the tracks and running gear. It will also be splattered around these areas and up the lower parts of the vehicle. I aim to keep the mud about a third of the way up the vehicle, rising to a little higher towards the rear and on the back.
Drybrush first with Bestial Brown. Let that dry, then drybrush over this with Snakebite Leather. Then brush over this with Bleached Bone. These three colours are quite good for mud, since they are distinct from any colours I'm likely to use for cammo schemes. A friend of mine swears by codex grey for weathering, so I may try this on my project tonight. Dwarf flesh has also been suggested for small patches of semi-dry mud
phil
weathered
Sounds like a good technique, Phil :)
Most of this stuff was done with washes, as I didn't want this thing to feel just like it was made of metal, but some strange alien armour. I used the Coat d'Arms super wash range for most of the weathering - black and brown and a little purple for small leaks, which aren't really visible. red and red/black mix for the blood. Green for the verdigis and several thinned layers of Mid Brown for the mud on his legs and feet.
Strangly, the colours I used on his base where very similar to what you describe for the mud you put on your vehicles. Base of 1:2 mix of scorched brown and chaos black. Drubrushed with vermin brown. Drybrushed with bubonic brown.
alternately
You might want to invest in a bottle of Vallejo German Cammo Brown-Black. Darker and less red than scorched brown, so a useful addition, and save you the bother of mixing.
Personally I'd not gone that dark with the mud. I found Bestial Brown dark enough, even though I was working over patterns that used Tamiya Flat Earth as a base. One of my vehicles had used dark brown as a cammo component, so I wanted distinct colours anyway. Bucolic brown sounds like a good alternate to the snakebite.
I did try using codex grey between the snakebite and the bleached bone, but for my taste it lightened the mud splatter up too much. This may have been because I was weathering a silver painted vehicle, so may work better on other vehicles.
shade
I wouldn't use anything as dark as the scorched brown/black mix on splattered mud - the splattered mud on his legs and feet is just several layers of the CdA super wash mid brown.
However, with all of those little stones on the base, I feel that to get a proper sense of depth, I need a proper dark colour to start, which will end up being the shadows cast by the stones - the other two colours then give the mud stone effect. I forgot to say that I then dilute my brown-black mix to about 1:6 mix:water before applying it to the base. This allows the darkness to pool and gives just enough of the variety of the original colour of the gravel/sand to show throw, even after drybrushing.
I get my sand/gravel from a chap on the Lead Adventure Forum - Mad Carew Snr, as it is a by-product of what he does at work :)