Painting realistic scratches

[Ghaffasa]

How do I paint good-looking scratches on space marine armour? I\'ve tried rune kappels tutorial, but I can\'t apply it properly. My scratches looks more like some sort of an ugly pattern. I need some advices where to put the scratches, and how they should look. I\'m looking for an effect similar to this:

 

[Tony Manero]

u have to paint a stain with a dark colour and underline the lowest part with a contrasting light colour... if u wait i can paint an example for u... anyway u can find a cyril tutorial (i remeber the title i think... how to paint glowing sm eyes... and so on...

 

[Ogrebane]

From were I can see some of them look like real scratched. As tony says tho. The top of the scratch should be dark and the bottom should be light. I would paint a dark red nearly black and use metal on the bottom of the scratch. I like what youve done tho. he looks very battle weary.

 

[Ghaffasa]

Thanks for your replies. I\'m going to try that out.

 

[Tony Manero]

however i suggest u don\'t exagerate scratching it like the pic\'s one... it seems he passed into a meatgrinder

servoskulls repair suits too lollol

 

[Yellow one]

I dont know what can say more about this technique. The principle is very simply. For imitation of concave volume of the scratches and dents need additional light and shadow, light strip on the bottom, and dark strip on the top. Think, main problem is the placing of the scratches. But think, the placing of it on the armour must be different, for example. legs will be damaged strongly than helmet, or outward part of the hip armour plate is scratched strongly then inner part. May be try to do scratches in more different size and forms. Think, edges of the armour plates will be very scratched. Oh, and one more, scratches in the shadow plases will be mush darker than on lightened places, such a helmet`s top. So, need several tones for drawing of the damages. Two colours, ligt and dark for all surface of the mini is not enough. Need at least two tones for lightning and two tones for darkening.

 

[Yellow one]

When i draw the battle damages, i try to present for myself, how this thing can be painted in a real life. For example, tank armour covered by very thick layer of paint, SM armour painting layer mush thin. Think, good sample of scratched personal armour can be worned WWII steel helmet.

 

[Ghaffasa]

Thanks a lot for your help. I realised that my scratches were too big and my white lines were too thick. one problem remains though, what should the basecolour look like? Should it be flat or slightly blended? ???

 

[Yellow one]

what should the basecolour look like? Should it be flat or slightly blended?

Sorry, i`m not understand. A which basecolor you have in seeing?

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Yellow one
I dont know what can say more about this technique. The principle is very simply. For imitation of concave volume of the scratches and dents....

Excellent summary - bloody good considering English isn\'t your first language!

Originally posted by Ghaffasa
Thanks a lot for your help. I realised that my scratches were too big and my white lines were too thick.

I don\'t think your scratches are necessarily too big, just that perhaps there are a little too many of them (although obviously armour that\'s very heavily scratched might be intentional) and they\'re placed a bit too evenly.

As Yellow one says above, think about where scratches would naturally form in the course of fighting and shouldering though holes blasted in concrete etc. The sides of the helmet, the inside of the upper arms and legs plus the sides of the torso would largely be scratch-free, while the shoulders, the hands and the feet/lower legs might have a lot and they might be concentrated naturally at edges.

One other thing I wanted to emphasise, I would imagine two different things doing this - chips and scratches - and treat them slightly differently. The chips will have bare metal and/or primer visible underneath the paint, the scratches will just be a shadow line with a highlight immediately underneath it (some scratches look okay if you just do a highlight line, makes them look more superficial) and doing scratches in addition to chips you can add a lot of finesse to the finished look as they can be very fine - also don\'t be afraid to make some scrapes quite long, even if they are harder to do. Combining the two techniques will add up to a better impression of what might happen to paint in the rough-and-tumble of armoured combat.

If you don\'t already do this have a look at how contemporary armour modellers do AFVs (MIG would be a good example) the look is immediately adaptable to this.

Originally posted by Ghaffasa
one problem remains though, what should the basecolour look like? Should it be flat or slightly blended? ???

I would paint the armour as though it were any other element before you scratch it up - that means add as much shading as you would for anything else.

Einion