Weathering miniatures and models: rust, mud, chipping and pigments

On this page

• Before you start
• Chipping
• Rust
• Washes, filters and streaks
• Mud, dust and pigments
• Order of work
• Common mistakes
• Questions

Before you start

• Finish the main painting and the decals, then gloss varnish the model. Washes and filters flow better on gloss, and the varnish protects the paint underneath if you need to wipe weathering off.
• Look at reference photos: real vehicles, machinery, buildings. Wear happens where hands, feet, tools and weather touch: edges, hatches, steps, the lower hull, around wheels and tracks.
• Weather in thin layers, and step back often. It is easy to add more, and much harder to take it off.

Chipping

• Sponge chipping: tear a small piece of blister foam or sponge, dab it in a dark brown, wipe most of it off, and dab it on edges and corners. Quick, and the easiest way to start.
• Brush chipping: paint small, irregular chips with a fine brush in dark brown. Then, for the best effect, paint a lighter version of the base colour along the lower edge of each chip, as if light catches the edge of the broken paint.
• Hairspray or chipping medium: paint or spray the metal or rust colour first, then a layer of hairspray or a chipping medium such as Chipping Medium, then the top colour. When dry, wet it with water and scrub with an old brush or toothpick: the top colour chips away and the metal shows through, very realistically.

Chips colours: a dark, almost black brown for deep chips that show bare metal or primer, and a metallic like steel or gunmetal on the very edges that get worn shiny.

Rust

Rust is a layer of browns and oranges, darkest where it is deepest. Paint or stipple a dark rust over the area, then a mid rust in the middle, then a little bright orange rust on the surface. For running rust, use a thinned orange-brown wash or an oil paint streak below bolts and seams, pulled downwards.

Target colours along the top; under each, the closest paint in that brand by swatch colour (ΔE under 6 is close, under 12 fair). Swatch colours are estimates, so check against the real pots.

There are also ready-made rust effects. Typhus Corrosion stippled on and drybrushed with Ryza Rust gives a fast, textured rust; Rust Tone is a rust-coloured wash; Rust is a rust effect paint; and for verdigris on brass and bronze, Nihilakh Oxide goes in the recesses.

Washes, filters and streaks

• Pin washes: a dark brown or black wash only in the panel lines, around bolts and hatches, to bring out detail. Oil or enamel washes are popular on vehicles because they flow well and can be wiped back with thinner.
• Filters: a very thin coat of colour (a few drops of oil paint or enamel in a lot of thinner, or a very thin acrylic glaze) over the whole model to unify the colours or shift them, like a sandy filter on a green tank.
• Streaks: dots of oil paint or a streaking product pulled down with a thinner-damp brush, for rain marks, grime and rust running down vertical panels.

Oils and enamels go over a gloss varnish, never straight onto acrylic paint, and need a well-ventilated room. Use odourless thinner, and let them dry for a day before a final matt varnish.

Mud, dust and pigments

Mud and dust build up where vehicles and boots touch the ground: tracks, wheels, the lower hull and mudguards, boots and cloak hems. Dust is pale and dry and goes higher; mud is darker, thicker and lower.

Target colours along the top; under each, the closest paint in that brand by swatch colour (ΔE under 6 is close, under 12 fair). Swatch colours are estimates, so check against the real pots.

• Stippled or splashed paint: stipple dark mud low on the hull, then dried mud higher up; flick a loaded old brush or toothbrush for splashes.
• Texture: Stirland Mud for thick, wet mud on tracks and wheels, with a little gloss varnish for a fresh, wet look.
• Pigments are fine powders. Brush them on dry for dust, then fix them with a pigment fixer, thinner or thinned matt varnish dropped on with a brush. Pro Acryl's weathering pigments on the site include Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, Red Iron Oxide and Unbleached Titanium.
• Drybrushing a sandy colour over the lower parts is the quickest dust of all. See the drybrushing guide.

Order of work

1. Base colours, camo, details and decals.
2. Gloss varnish.
3. Chipping.
4. Filters and pin washes.
5. Rust and streaks.
6. Mud and dust, from the ground up.
7. Matt varnish, then a little gloss for fresh oil, fuel, water or wet mud.

Common mistakes

• Too much. Heavy weathering everywhere hides the paint job; keep most surfaces fairly clean and put the wear where it would happen.
• Chips that are all the same size, or evenly spread. Real chips cluster on edges and around hatches, with a few big ones and many tiny ones.
• Rust everywhere. A few rust spots and streaks look more real than an all-over orange coat, unless the model is meant to be a wreck.
• Mud in the wrong colour. Match it to the base, so the model and the ground agree.
• Oils straight on acrylic paint. Varnish first, or the thinner can lift the paint.