Tips for weathering

If anyone has tips for weathering models they would be appreciated

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Something I have always wanted to try. So much so that I have amassed weathering paints, powders and washes but have never got around to giving it a go. Have been inspired by so many YouTube videos showing the 'How To' and the results.

Weathering is one of those things that you have to be very careful with.  It's oh so easy to get carried away and go way too far and totally ruin an otherwise beautiful model.

Looking at 'factory weathered' models it looks to me as though they use an airbrush to apply the 'muck' (for want of a better word) and have the heavier application at the bottom slowly getting lighter as you go up the model.  I have also seen some models with streaking type effects going down them from certain parts and sometimes it can look effective, others it just looks too much in my opinion.

I did try a few experiments with a simple ink type wash applied with a brush on a couple of wagons that were worse for wear to start with so it didn't matter how they went so if they got ruined it wasn't a disaster.  Let me see if I can find some before and after photo's...

Ok, found them, this is one of the wagons I picked, it was a bit tatty already as you can see, but doesn't exactly look realistically 'worn' or 'weathered'.



So I used this ink wash I had found and just basically brushed on a liberal coat and let it run while the wagon sat drying, although I'm sure you could do better, especially if you applied less to some areas and maybe a second coat to others I think it definitely made it look more realistic if not perfect.  But as I said this was just an experiment and one I've not been able to try to perfect to date, but will probably give it another go when (if) time permits!



The wash I used was this one from Vallejo;

Vallejo Game Wash (Dipping Formula)

If you do decide to have a crack at weathering I would highly suggest picking up some damaged/playworn/spares&repairs type rolling stock to test out any techniques you want to try.  You can usually pick up such bundles fairly cheaply on eBay and its better to mess up on something like that first and temper your technique before trying it on something more valuable to you

Hope this helps and please show us your results if you do have a go!