Hey guys, thanks for the input. Patrick I think you might be right about the dust idea, not sure how i would do that yet, but i'll try a few things and let you know how it turns out.
beav, the skirts were weathered gradually using enamel paint, and turps. Basically I used 85, and 113 humbrol enamel (google them for colours), however the 85 is actually a satin black which caused a slight shine to the finish and had to be sprayed after with matt varnish, so maybe better to use a matt black instead.
Anyway I basically use two brushes for this part. The first was a decent brush used to paint on very small amounts of a quite thin mix of the two colours - leaning more towards the black side. The second brush was an old tattered frayed out brush with I bought from the pound shop along with about 20 others and is no use for anything else.
This colour mix was used throughout so i painted a small blob of it on my pallette first and let it dry for later colour matching.
Start by painting a small amount of the paint near to the edges with the first brush, Then either dry, or with the slightest amount of turps on the brush - then dried off with tissue, I rubbed at the area to blend the paint towards the center of the skirts with the second brush.
Once this had been complete and had dried fully, I did pretty much the same again, only this time with a slightly (only very slightly though) thicker paint and no turps on the second brush. However this time, instead of blending the paint, i stabbed at it with the brush, causing it to look like mild scrapes and scratches.
Again once fully dried out a third pass was complete, only this time I had a thicker mix again of the paint, and only used the second brush. I tapped the paint onto the brush making sure not to pick up too much. Then again tapping the edges only this time causing even deeper scrapes and scratches.
Once done, if you have any areas showing through of the original colour at the very edge of the worst hit areas, simply paint a small amount on the edge to cover it.
As for the water marks.. I tell you what, If I get time tomorrow, I will do an example and post some pics to show you how I did that, because I was going to try to explain, but even I couldn't understand what I had written, so it may be easier to show you.
For now, you can give the chipping and staining a go, but DON'T over do it. It does start to feel good when you see it working so well, and can become a bit addictive.
Phew..
I hope all that makes sense anyway guys, let me know if I missed anything there, or if you do try it yourself, let me know how it goes.
Cheers
Bill.
