Painting Battle Damage...On Black Armour

[Chaplain Hiltraud]

I am struggling to paint good looking battle damage on my black models.

The thing is, I want to steer clear of painting metal as the damaged area and go for the same look as the black/grey over highlights as many do with other colours...

At the moment my black is painted as a 30/20/40/10 mix of regal blue/grey/black/water to create a more realistic off black colour, leaving the recesses neutral black.

I've tried the black/grey method but that just looks like I've missed spots and painted bad highlights! I have since switched to painting black/brown which only looks a little better.

If anyone has any advice on this, it will be appreciated greatly as I am on the verge of joining the Death Company!!!!!! :D

 

Yours in Honour, Faith and Blood,

Chaplain Hiltraud

[kataklysm]

So just a quick MS Paint example of how I achieve realistic looking scratches. Scratches on black armor would be very difficult to see, and the only visible portion would be the bottom "lip" or edge of said scratch/score.

 

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/cannibal_cthompson/scratchexmpl.png

 

Now since black doesnt reflect a ton of light, the easiest way to trick your eye into thinking it looks real is to give it a medium gray highlight. Remember that these will have to be pin thin in order to pull off the effect. Any thicker and it will look like just a messy highlighting job.

 

As stated in the text in the pic, Scratches such as these tend to run in pairs or sometimes even more (i tend to leave it at three at the most, otherwise it looks like claw marks or something). "high wear" areas will be recieving scratches from all 360 degrees, so dont thik that they have to be all horizontal, or vertical. Another way to make them look even cooler is a method that i use on my military scale models all the time. After you establish the scratch, thin out some burnt umber oil paint and trace just above the scratch mark (very thinned paint, and very small trace). When this dries for a time (1-2 hours) come back with a large, flat, crisp-edged brush that has been dampened with oil paint thinner and draw the brush in a downwards direction over the scratch. If you do this in 2-3 layers then you will have the most realistic rust effect you have ever seen. NOTE: this may not apply to your black models. But you can use this method on almost any lighter color and it looks great!

 

Hope i helped a little bit

[ShinyRhino]

I'd start here:

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/04/st...del-before.html

 

And then read all of the Weathering articles in the Archive.Tutorials page (link is at the bottom of Ron's pages).

[kataklysm]

Though I love his approach at weathering, I tend to agree with hiltraud's idea of leaning away from the simple ol' chipped down to metal effect. If marine armor is anything like military vehicle armor, (I like to believe this) then it actually doesnt chip easily. When I was in iraq, we had a humvee get hit dead on by an rpg and it blew up yes, but the paint was practically 100% intact. modern miracle? No, just a healthy dose of powercoating.

 

This is the reason that i never finish my marines with a satin varnish. Always stick to Matte. ;)