We are going to take a look at a range of different ways to weather your model and then we will question when and when you should weather models. In short.

Whether you should weather

Recently I did a quick series of experiments with the Dirty Down product. My interest was purely professional because, here is the thing usually weathering is an exhaustive process if you want to do it right and as I have said “There is no such thing as cheating” You can find them by clicking the image below.

Results were as expected, those which had heat applied to them had a much greater effect than those without heat and those which I have seen that didn’t have the bottle shaken had a much more similar effect to that of a very thin texture paint. So this means that certain models in fact the majority of models, once you step out of the realm of Games-Workshop and Warhammer, won’t be able to get the full effect of this product. So it is easier to list the number of products these can effectively be used on without risk of damage

Metal Models and ABS plastics.

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Plastic, may be referred to by some as ‘Hard Plastic’

The effects without heat at are not so bad as to consider them a complete bust when it comes to such things however, the effects are not as striking.

If you can’t cheat what can you do?

There are a number of different things you can do.

Powders
Pencils
Paints
Streaking brushes
Technical paints/texture paints

Cheating by painting

Rust and verdigris have very predictable patterns so you can just paint on the effect. However one of the major effects of rust is very easy to do.

Rust

Brown base
Stipple Red
Stipple Orange
Drybrush Metalic

While there are a lot ways to paint different types of rust and you can do it in many technical ways what I am trying to do is show you the fastest most effective hobby cheating way so that you can just get it out there.

Verdigris

Verdigris is something that gloops down so just grab your favourite aquamarine colours and then dilute down. Have it very diluted and start with the darkest colour first and have it naturally run down and then hit the area with a lighter colour in the same manner.

Streaking Brushes

To produce grime and rust that streaks down from exposed rivets, bolts and nails, and so on with the grime going down, or whatever it may be.

This allows you to do this very easily you just run the pencil or brush down that area and you get the result. However, it is very niche while they are good at doing that job.

Pencils

I am not that familiar with pencils so I will simply leave it to another, however, my next topic I am much more familiar with so instead I pass it on to these people

seeing what this guy can do with pencils is pretty intense makes me wish I did more research into these before starting even though I have these exact pencils longer than the dirty down stuff.

Powder

I have the powder.

Wait no that was meant to be a parody of the song “I got the power” by Snap known for being in many commercials throughout 2000s and the 2010s… Please don’t arrest me its just pigment.

It doesn’t matter if it is Artist Spectrum pure pigment, Tamiya weathering master, AK interactive, or a Dollar store pastel kit crushed into powder it is all the same. Even make-up will do the same thing. From what you use the quality can vary but like it was said when it comes to products such as contrast and speed paints “There are no bad paints just bad applications”. Well, I think there are bad paints but I wouldn’t put either of them into it. If you are buying a branded product such AK or any other, you are buying for the same reason anyone buys paint rather than mixing it on the pallet. Consistency.

What powders are particularly good for is creating rust. Rust builds up and will go far beyond the area of the item in question and because we are able to perceive things at such a tiny scale if you literally build up you will be able to see it starting from a red-brown and up to more of an orangy red you will be able to see that build-up. Additionally, you can apply it wet by dipping your brush in the water taking the greater majority of the excess water and then dip in your powder then apply to the model for a more chunky build-up. Or you can lick your brush for a similar effect. Spit has a surprising number of uses.

Until using Dirty Down rust it was my favourite way to do rust and will still likely be one of my key tools in my arsenal. It allows me to use it on models which wouldn’t take heat well which is a surprisingly large amount.

However, this still leaves verdigris, while powder can be suspended in a liquid and applied to get a verdigris effect, why not use normal paint… just use normal paint.

Technical and texture paints

Here is the truth of the matter… There is a reason that everyone raved about the Dirty Down products and it wasn’t because of their brilliant naming convention to put words with the same starting letter.

While many of the various technical paints will be a lot older than the Dirty Down series they will come out looking as pale imitations.

Typhus corrosion is simply a texture paint suspended in a much more liquid paint. Nihilakh Oxide is simply a very, very watered down high pigment aquamarine.

I am not saying that these are bad products or that you shouldn’t use them, hell I still use them on occasion. Nihilakh Oxide is great when you don’t want to fuss about thinning your aqua colours into oblivion and then adding some extra coats. And adding texture to a model is exactly what powders do.

However I am not going to say GW is unique in this, there are lots of companies that release similar products like AK interactive, Vallejo and so on and I would say they are all quite similar in quality it’s more just to taste how they work. If you wanted homemade alternatives like how you can them, like a homemade wash, usually your time is more valuable.

What am I saying?

If you want a great rust effect rather than buying two products Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust you could just buy Dirty Down rust, because time is the currency of life. It’s an opinion, not a gospel please don’t shoot me for using basic logic.

Whether you should weather

Whether you should weather down to three things which comes down to one thing…

verisimilitude

If you are a long-time reader of my blogs/articles/mad ravings, you will be pretty sick of this word but the reason I write this over and over and over, is simple. It’s important. When you are making a model or a base you are selling a story. And it is not the reality of what is there plastic and paint but rather the ‘feeling of reality’ or verisimilitude. You are not trying for reality but in essence a heightened reality.

In my opinion, weather only comes in three flavours.

The reason for this is simple. It’s us, humans. See almost all rust comes due to our interference metal isn’t exactly natural the way we see it most of the time. So we are what determines reality. When seeing oxidation we don’t see rust, we see how much effort will it take to repair and for most people, they simply see, it’s fine, I need to fix it, or completely stuffed.

So when it comes to weathering, think about that small fact before you start doing it. Would people be keeping their items in perfect condition? Well if they are Space Marines of the non Chaos Variety, Elves, Dwarves or some sort of nobility, the answer is likely yes. What if they are more vicious, mercenary types? Perhaps people on the run. Or battlefield warrior types, then you may see a slight amount of weathering along with battle damage (something I didn’t go over) and dings here and there. So it’s Nurgle, let’s be honest it’s Nurgle or MadMax types at this point, sometimes Orcs but if it is this rusted it probably shouldn’t be working but it does.

In my opinion that is how and when you should weather. I hope this gives you some interesting options and I hope this has been informative.

I will see you next time friends, in the meantime

Keep those brushes wet

Whether you should weather