Originally posted by Dakwan
i think i could have made the damage look better (or good period
) if had done a bit of modeling before hand but didn\'t plan on it when i started but hindsight is 20/20 so thats that.
For what you\'re looking to do that\'s not necessary - most vehicle modellers seek to represent scratches and chips using paint only.
For mud you can easily go to something three-dimensional after the basic painting is already done by stippling on a muddy paste* with an old brush and then painting it appropriately.
*Plaster/patching compound, paint and a bit of PVA (with or without added fine sand & static grass).
Originally posted by Dakwan
this time i\'m trying to make it a bit grungy... thats about the \'level\' of dirtiness i\'m looking for but i\'m just not quite satisfied with the look of it
Apart from practice to give a feel for doing dirt believably you need to have worked in more layers for the dust and mud splatters. I\'d have used a duller colour first off and done some washes, a couple of mist coats through the airbrush for fine settled dust and then some spattering to represent splattered mud. Remember mudding up can often use more than one colour with any fresh, wetter stuff done with a darker and browner mix.
Shot damage/gouges/scratches are best kept small if they\'re represented by painting only. You need to paint a
very fine dark line above whatever colour you use to represent the bare metal, with a corresponding light highlight underneath (the lit edge of the chipped paint). What you currently have is dark above and below and to all sides, as well as that they\'re a bit big - if you do substantial damage like that it\'s best to have some of it represented by a gouge into the plate. Have a look at this very nice
sentinel that was posted recently and you\'ll see what I mean (note: the chipping on this is too uniform and doesn\'t take into account the wear the vehicle is likely to have encountered, but the effect is very nicely done).
If you want to do rust stains from the metal exposed by a chip or shot I would strongly recommend finding and working from references, rather than trying to do it from your head as this tends to lead to \'twee\' results. Have a look at this thread from planetFigure for the photos of rusting steel I posted:
Rust. Notice how intricate and irregular things are, far less neat than it\'s usually painted in the hobby. Don\'t be afraid to take your own reference photos!
More general comments on painting ordnance in this recent thread:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=33177
Incidentally your decal looks like it has silvered badly - applying to a gloss surface takes care of most of that but decal solutions, e.g. Solvaset, would help too. A simple layer of Future/Klear can work well, but you do then have to matt the entire vehicle back down with a reliable matt finish.
Einion
