Been asked a few times Now on some Forums how I go about weathering my world eaters stuff. So rather than make a half ass reply to people, I thought it best I do a little Tutorial to show you guys how I do it. And like anything in this hobby eventually you will work out your own ways of doing things that work best for you. Now this tutorial took me all of 30 minutes to do, from spraying the model to finish. That gives you some sort of idea at just how fast you can achieve the heavily weathered look. Spending a little more time on Parts will obviously give better results, but for a basic 101 in World Eater weathering this will do.
Now you will need a few things here, most important is High density foam, the sort you fined in the back of old metal blister packs, of packing foam. A cheap Washing up sponge also works. And secondly Cotton swabs, these are a must, if you are in the UK you can grab a pack of 500 for 99p. Then you are going to need a half decent brush, if you have a brush that you use for edging models, that is the brush you want to use. Then there are the optional tool, craft knife, pin drill and something to make scrapes/gouges, I use an old Airbrush needle. These items depends on if you want to add some damage to your Models.
So the first step is to get your model Painted like it would be if it rolled off the production line, And Built, if you are like me and paint everything before you glue it together. For this tutorial I am using a Rhino side section, as you get a few spare when you buy the MKI Rhinos from forgeworld, so these sides give you and excellent practise piece. And for this I'm just going to leave it on the Sprue, as its never going to get used, and will most likely end up in the bin after I finish this.
So its time to give it a warn paint look. Easiest way to do this is using some high density foam. You want to rip a small piece off that you can pinch between your fingers, and then you can start to shape your self a little tool, I fined a Domed shape is best to use, and then make one that goes to a point, for smaller hard to reach places.
Now what colour to use............... If you have a two colour paint scheme this is very easy to choose, you just use the colour that there is the most of on the model, in the case of my world eaters this is White. The reason for this is we have to imagine that the colour with the less percentage is going to be painted over the main colour. So with my World Eaters, this will be the Blue painted over the white, So when the blue paint is damaged and chipped or just worn down the white paint will start to show through.
So as you can see below on the blue areas i have sponged on some White Scar, to give the effect of the blue paint worn down, or chipped away.
The next stage is deeper amount of damage, we can assume that in the 41st millennium, they did not bother to make indestructible paint. SO we need to add the effect that in places the paint has worn off so much that we are down to the bare metal. or for what passes for metal in the 41st millennium. So the next stage is to take Leadbelcher or Bolt Gun metal for the old school paint. and sponge it on.
When applying the Silver paint you want to sponge over the white that you have created on the blue sections as well. sponge all the edges you want to, you can go for very subtle amounts or like I do with my world eaters, go very heavy. The sponging will naturally pick out edges, but after you finish with the sponge you want to use your edging brush and make sharp edges just as you would if you where to highlight the edges of your models. you only want to do this on the areas that you applied sponging too, I suggest making it heavier on the front edges and the bottom edges.
Now we want to highlight that silver with a lighter silver, for this I use Iron breaker, this give the appearance of a just scuffed of damaged part, or an area that is constantly being hit or rubbed against, so areas like around the door, and the front and lower edges especially.
Now this next step is not for everyone, For reasons I will explain at the end. But for now, this is how i make my rust effects. This consists of Vallejo Light red, and Vallejo Burnt Umber. You want to get a lot of red down first and then add a single drop of Burnt umber at a time, as light red is a very washy colour, and burnt umber easily overpowers it. so just add what you need, don't just splodge some on and hope when its mixed it works as it wont, "GO EASY WITH THE UMBER YA HEAR" .
Once you get a colour that you like, Then you can go up a notch and add in some weathering powder, this gives a deeper colour, and if you don't mix it in perfectly you get a change in colour on parts that also gives a better rust effect.
Again sponge this on, but do it sparingly, and only do it on areas of silver. if you apply to much here you can wait till it drys and go back over it with silver, and you will get the same effect, Sometimes I do this step before the silver, but its entirely up to you and how you work with it.
After you have done all of that its time to tie the whole thing together, And like any lazy Painters a wash is the best way to do this, but also add more weathering effects at the same time. For my world eaters, I use a mix of 70% Agrax Earthshade and 20% Nuln Oil, depending on your colour scheme you may need to adjust this, for yellow like Imperial fists I would be looking at a 50/50 mix, and maybe add in a medium as well, as to much Agrax earth shade will turn yellow very brown. I have a few pots ready mixed of this, and ready to go.
Applying the wash is simple, get ya biggest brush, and paste the model in it, cove everything in it, metal work, etc. even things like purity seals. Worst thing I have seen weathering wise, was a nicely weathered tank, but with bright and clean purity seals and emblems. Its like the Servs, decided to only clean parts of the tank on to save time. So at this stage everything gets it.
Now the most important bit, removing that wash. This is where a ton of cotton swabs comes into play. you want to remove that wash you just splatted over the model by rolling the swabs back and forth, changing them over for clean ones regularly. Then on the high spots, you want to use a clean swab and rub hard, this will bring more of the base colour through the wash and in some respects give it a sort of highlight. the wash also tones down all of the rust effects and brings out the difference between the two tones of Metals you applied.
And that peeps, is that, a very very fast way to weather your models using my world eaters technique as an example. Now I mentioned earlier about the rust effects, If you happen to play with a bunch of guys that for some reason know the ins and outs of the particles that make up Ceremite, you may wish to skip the rust effects, hell skip the metal effects. we all know our self's that in the 41st millennium they probably wont use a material that rusts, hell if the name has anything to do with it then Ceremite is some sort of ceramic material hardened by the hairs from L337 Neck beards from the virgin stock of basement dwellers. and as such probably is not silver in colour even though th colour of Grey knights can be argued here as there armour is apparently bare Ceremite. and it wont rust. however we want a look to our models that says they have been through hell and back, and the easiest way to do this is by giving them chipped paint and rusty metal.
Ok so I have been looking into something that has been done in in AD&D for a wile now. It consists of using A projector aimed down at a Table, Hooked up to a Laptop of PC. This then allows you to display full color HD battle maps to play on. And I thought to my self. why the hell aren't people using this for games like Space Hulk? There are plenty of Map creators out there that can be used for making Space Hulk maps. One of the best software to get is Space Hulk Tile creator. It is a 45mb download. And allows you to create amazing Space Hulk maps with infinite possibility's. You can also use the software to place markers and tokens. Hell if you wanted to you could even use it to place digital top down view models instead of actually using the Models that come with space hulk, But that's no fun and kinda boring. You just create a Map and save it as a PDF. then use 1 of the millions of Virtual D&D programs to open the file. Load some custom tokens and your away.
Its also a good idea to place actual Door ways from the Spacehulk Game. if you have lost your Door markers then you can make your own.
So how does this work then?
It works by displaying the map you have just made through a Video out port on your PC or Laptop. VGA, DVI or HDMI depending on what hardware you have available to you. Most projectors will all take one of these 3 if not all of them. And if the projector you pick up does not have the correct connector for older hardware Say you only have a VGA out port. Then you can get a Convertor to make this into a HDMI or DVI. But note that if you are going from a VGA to a HD projector the VGA ports don't put out HD images and so you will only get a standard definition image displayed by the projector.
Once you have sorted this problem out you need to mount the projector above a Table. There are proper Table projectors available but because they are a specialized projector (only because they point downwards) they tend to be More expensive. So I have been coming up with ways in which you could mount the projector and I have come up a with a few ideas.
The cradle: Now the Cradle is the best because you can have the projector project directly down rather than at an angle. It consist of Buying some white PVC pipe from a DIY store and the Push fit connections to go with it. Now you just have to build a cube like a large Mechano set (please note if you have a tone of Mechano you can also use that. Show off). Bear in mined this has to sit on a table. So make it so it sits on your table safely.
You then need to build a device that will hold the Projector. You could do this by getting some timber and building a L section that with stretch across the top of the Cube you have built. And can mount the projector to the timber using the mounting hardware that most projectors come with for ceiling mounted version.
The Lazy way: the lazy way is simple you need a stand of some sort. And belive it or not a Music stand is perfect. Because where you would store your Music books for reading wile playing. Is the perfect angle for the projector, Plus the shelf at the bottom where the book would rest on will olso stop the projector slipping off. enough good advantage of this setup is that the stand is Adjustable in height. So you have a bit more customization of the zoom on the projector.
After all is mounted your are ready to go. And you should have something that looks like this.
Yeah that's right fracking awesome. Now imagine having the lights turned off, A horrid Spacehulk board glowing in the center of the table, With the Scanner noise from Aliens playing in the background for some ambient noises.
Now cost wise, obviously the main bulk is the cost of the projector. You can buy a Pocket projector from Amazon for around £100. they are perfect, light weight and portable. and are also fully HD. Making the Cube cradle for this is more of a case of shopping around or ask someone like me that has a Trade account in places. Total cost for me works out at around £10 for pipe and fittings. Now this is a cool if not expensive way to play Spacehulk. however it has loads more uses. and some incredibly fun ones as well. this can be used for AD&D you can use this for smaller 40k battles. Instead of using a battle mat you can display an image of any kind of surface you like. And then add some scenery to it as well for cover. Or how about displaying an amazing solar system to use with Battle Fleet Gothic, Or even Dark Future race track. This is also the most basic method, you can attach a Wii remote to the cradle and using software freely available on the internet create a interactive whiteboard or battle board. by simply adding an inferred LED and a battery to a pen.
Ok lets discuss this then. Why the hell are people still paying out a crap load of money of GW primers and spray paints, GW are charging £9.50 for a can of primer, this is just stupid. Army painter are also charging about the same depending where you shop £8-10 range.
So lets work this out. You are going to start a new project, and you are picking up your supplies. For the most part you are going to grab Black Primer White Primer Clear coat
That's a total cost of £28.50.
Now lets look at the alternative.
Airbrush and compressor. £50 on Ebay
£2 for some Grey Primer £2 for Matt finish Clear coat £2 White Paint £2 Black paint.
So that's a total cost of £58
Wow you save £29.50 if you go for GW sprays, Or do you. Lets be honest here, a can of primer from GW will last you a couple of units and a few tanks, and then you have to go and spend £9.50 again to get some more. But if you go with an airbrush and compressor you have a high initial cost but the paints are stupidly cheap, and you can take it from me that those tiny little Madel Air pot by Vallejo out last a Citedel spray can, because you don't over spray the model and waste loads of paint. The paint is more directed at the model, rather that shooting out an arc of paint that decorates what ever you are spraying near. Within 6 moths of using an airbrush and a compressor, you would of saved money on your hobby. your primer coats will be thinner and better. leaving more sharp detail edges on the model for an overall better look. Its not even the fact that your saving money. I mean that is just on undercoating alone. How long does it take you to undercoat, And brush basecoat an entire squad of space marines? I bet its an hour or two at best. I can undercoat, pre-shade, base coat, wash, and highlight a squad in half an hour, all with an airbrush. The advantages are amazing, think of those tanks you are painting, watering down the paint, and applying countless thin layers to minimize those brush strokes. An airbrush saves you time and money full stop.
Now lets talk about GW answer to airbrushing. The cheapest of the cheap Hand flamer shaped Air brush. They charge £20 for this and then £5.50 for a can of compressed air, by the time you have painted an army, you would of used about 6 cans of compressed air, its not a viable option when half decent compressors are so cheap now.
There is more of a bonus, if you use Model air paints you can do all your spraying in the comfort of your own home they are all water based acrylics that have no fumes what so ever, meaning your painting area does not stink of that typical GW spray paint smell.
Now don't get me wrong, an airbrush does not replace a brush and a pot of paint, you still need to do some hand brushing. But hand brushing the details on a model is fine, there are no large areas that brush strokes notice on.
Now let's talk about paints for the airbrush. You are not going to want to try and use GW paints, they are useless for airbrushing. You will waste so much paint trying to thin them properly that it will cost you money. The GW paints DO NOT thin properly at all. They are designed for hand brushing, and there pigments are not fine enough to be properly used with an airbrush. The only thing that has managed to get them going through an airbrush half decently is matt medium, With a couple of drops of air brush thinner. But this gives you the problems of inaccurate mixes that can lead to unwanted non unification of unit colors.
So i suggest Badjer paints or Vallejo model air. Now these go for around £2 each. And don't think to your self, "I have hundreds of GW paints, I don't want to start again". You don't need to. The only paints you need to buy are the main ones for undercoating, base coating, and clear coating. The rest can be done with your GW paints.
Save your self some money and some time, And go grab an airbrush. You will thank your self for it.
For an awesome tutorial and help and advice on everything airbrush related check out Chung's channel.
