Weathering Ships & Showing Wear & Tear or Battle Dam

[Timothy OConnor]

I'm building Ground Zero Games starships and trying to figure out how to "weather" them.

Yes, I know starships aren't technically "weathered" and the environmental conditions aren't the same.

So this is really about painting technique and not necessarily the "why" of the weathering.

First, do you weather your GHQ WWI or WWII ships?

If yes, what do you do and how do you do it? Technique?

Note that GZG ship scale is closer to GHQ's WWI and WWII ships than to big AFV or aircraft model kits. So while streaks of impact damage on the ship's leading edge would probably be appropriate painting wear and tear around hatches or where crew climb around would be impossible given the scale. We're talking broad effects that indicate the ship has been around for some time and maybe saw action (eg repair damage battle).

[groundlber]

The two techniques I use to 'age' ship models are to drybrush light grey over the camoflauge pattern and to put a little rust on the hull. The more weathering you put on the model, the longer it looks since it's seen a dockyard. Warning! It's easy to overdo the effect and wind up with a ship model that looks like it belongs on red lead row..
If your ship models have clearly marked panels, you could also paint one of the panels the base color of the model or even a base metal color. That could represent a patch that the crew had not gotten around to painting yet. I used that technique on some Battletech figures I painted for somebody.
I hope this helps.
Groundlber

[Timothy OConnor]

Yes it does! Thanks!

[voltigeur]

One technique I use is selective black washing. After I blackwash a vehicle and let it dry I go back with a smaller brush and blackwash certain areas again. Like the engine grills or the area behind exhaust ports that would have more soot on them.

At the Micro Armor scale you may be able to do the same for battle damage. After your figure has its basic paint job, use a dryer black wash brush (tap off the excess) and darken certain areas where you would like hits. By black washing only certain panels etc you will give the impression of aged damage without actually painting damage.

Let us know how it works.