How do a paint dents in armor and make cloth look worn?

[Erikjust]

A friend of mine asked me to paint his Empire army.
Since a lot of the miniatures have armor on them, i thought it might be a good idea to give some of them battle damage.
What i imagined was to make some of the armor look dented and scratched, as in this armor has seen a lot of battle and not always with someone nearby who knew how to repair the armor beyond it will protect you and that´s it.
Also i would like to make some of the clothes look almost as worn as the armor.

The problem is i have no idea how to paint such things.
I could imagine that dents could be painted like scratches or that i could take a hobby knife and perhaps carve some holes in the armor and smooth the edges out with liquid green stuff.
But again any ideas are welcome.

Same with the clothes i could imagine some extreme highlights, like if the cloth was painted dark red(scab red) then use a 3-1 highlight of bleached bone and scab red
and paint it around the edges of close to the hands and feet and perhaps on the edges of the folds in cloth.
Again any suggestion on how to make look worn would be welcome.

 

[freakinacage]

You seem to be on to something with the cloth, fading of the colour would look great. Bear in mind that dirt would also accumulate in certain areas that get a lot of wear, elnows, knees etc

Scratches and dents can be modelled or painted with deceptive highlighting/shading

 

[Dragonsreach]

I wouldn't just stick to Bleached Bone for your highlight, remember a lot of red dyes are "fugitive" ie fade with light so adding a light grey or Dwarf Flesh to the Scab red would work as well.
Also think about areas like shoulders where packs rub and wear cloth.
You could add patches onto area like knees or where areas likely to get tears or snagged.
Oh and something to think about Linen shirts etc were rarely white to start with (unless you were rich) and generally with wear and washing turn to a slightly softer version of Bleached bone. Those that don't wash the linen would get stains and yellowed, and don't stand downwind of them.

 

[Einion]

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums...with-dents-cracks-and-battle-damage-on-armour
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?10994-how-can-i-paint-scratches-on-white-armor
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?10984-Painting-realistic-scratches
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?10165-Imperfections
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?38976-Weathering-infantry
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?15629-How-do-you-get-cloth-to-look-old

Hey look, the search works!

Einion