Hello ladies and gentlemen, it’s me BAM back again for another step by step! This time I want to show How I paint Weathered Armour. For this one I am going to show the steps used to achieve a very battered and corroded look to plate mail armour using the skeletons from Underworlds by Games Workshop! You can also see a more in-depth tutorial of mine in Issue 32 of The Figurementors Magazine, Fantasy Edition!

Step 1

So as usual, I’m starting with a black undercoat. From there I applied some “Bolt Gun Metal” by GW or you can use any dark silver.

 

 

Step 2

I applied a liberal wash of “Agrax Earthshade”(GW) along with “Badab Black”in a 50/50 mix straight from the bottles, no dilution.

 

 

Step 3

I added another coat of “Agrax Earthshade” on it’s own straight from the bottle along with some black lining to further delineate and separate the sections so each part of the model is easily readable to the eye.

Step 4

I reapplied “Bolt Gun Metal”(GW) in a few thin coats to re introduce the bright colour of the armour. This would basically be the first highlight.

Step 5

I used an Orange Brown to simulate rust and laid this into the recesses. My favourite go to colour for this is an old bottle of “Bestial Brown”. “Skrag Brown” is the equivalent of this paint in the current Citadel Colour range.

Step 6

I blacklined again to neaten up the “Bestial Brown” previously applied in the recesses.

Step 7

I hit the edges of the armour with a mix of “Rune Fang Steel”(GW) mixed with “Bolt Gunmetal”(GW). This is a 70/30 mix in favour of Rune Fang Steel.

Step 8

Using a very fine brush I began to add textures to the platemail armour to simulate nicks, dents, lines that mimic corrosion, marks and damage. I did this to represent the look of very old and structurally compromised armour worn by it’s long dead resisdent! As an added step, I move about the armour randomly stippling to create abnormally shaped dots and lines of different angels and sizes in different directions.

 

Step 9

After the first pass I went back in and did the same random filling in of some of the less concentrated areas of the textured armour that I didn’t get in the first pass. I do this for three or so different passes each time, painting the markings finer and tighter.

 

Step 10

I painted on a very thinned out mix of “Agrax Earthshade” and water, about five drops of water to one drop of “Agrax Earthshade”(essentially a glaze).  The glaze comes after all of the steps of adding nicks, dots and hash marks that should get smalller and finer with each pass. You could then go in and add some small spots of “Bestial Brown” to punch up the rusted look in random areas of the model to add further levels of interest.

 

This is how I achieve a look of markings and textures that show a very believable and realistic corroded and weathered look to steel armour. Thanks for reading, you can see more of my work at Putty And Paint!