How to Weather a Plastic Kit without Painting Part 1

Kathy Millatt

Published on Thursday 12 January 2017 by Kathy Millatt

This summer I fell in love with the Halo series of video games and all the associated universe of fiction, movies, red vs blue and, of course, models!

This is a Bandai Sprukits Level 3 Master Chief that stands around 24cm tall. He's great! They are lovely kits to put together and just snap without the need for glue. Great fun!

Then you just need to paint it... I have a love/hate relationship with my air brush (more hate if I'm honest) so rather than paint a kit that is already the right colours, I just chose to weather him up and I'm really pleased with how he came out.

Step 1: Acrylic Varnish - acts as a base coat and has two uses - one to make the plastic look less "plasticky" and second to protect the plastic. This kit cracked when I used a lot of solvents on the raw plastic.

Step 2: Research - Google is your best friend here.

Step 3: Paint Details - out comes the fine brush and paint to pick out patches in a different colour.

Step 4: Panel Lines - adds definition to all the moulded detail.

Step 5: Clean up those panel lines with white spirit or thinners.

Step 6: Panel Shading - adds definition to the flat base colour.

Step 7: Scratches - added using chrome paint and a steady hand.

Check out the next post to see how to weather up the Master Chief.

Materials

Acrylic Varnish such as AK interactive or Vallejo
Vallejo Black Grey paint 70.862 - one of my favourite colours!
Mig Dark Wash - PO220 - other brands such as Ammo by Mig or AK Interactive make similar products
White spirit or branded wash thinner
AK Interactive Slimy Grime Dark - AK026
Tamiya Chrome Paint - X-11
AK Interactive Streaking Grime - AK012 - this has a brownish tone for the dirt
AK Interactive Dark Steel Pigment - AK086
Lifecolor Liquid Pigments - Frame Dirt LPW 24 and Carriage Grime LPW 22
AK Interactive Dark Earth pigment - AK081
Pigment Fixer - Mig00249 - Ammo by Mig and AK Interactive do similar products
Required reading - Mecha by Mig Jimenez

Index

00:19 The Real World
00:37 Method
12:32 Mini Kathys

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