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Hello, I would like to know what you guys think and what I could do to improve this as I complete the model. looking for any insight or advice you can provide.

I think some weathering powder at some strategic place , could look pretty good. And maybe a little silver dry brushing at the edge of the yellow shape to give a used feel

that could work, though I have never used weathering powders before, and could you elaborate on "the dry brushing at the edge of the yellow shape" Do you mean the whole body or something in specific.

For the silver, it depends on how worn you want the dread to be. Has he seen lots of battle recently? or is he fresh out of the repair bay?

As for wear though, keep in mind what he does when coming up with where to do the weathering. Almost all of the damage will be coming from the front arc of the model. so any edges on the front of the dread will be prone to damage. There may be a few scratches here and there on the back, but to be realistic it should be a lot less.

Another reason that the front should have more weathering is that as he walks forward and brushes up against (or plows through) terrain, generally only the front will be getting damaged as well.

hope that helps a bit for where to do it.

Another idea besides battledamage is painting on the hint of inscriptions, a freehand chapter symbol or kill-count list for defeated enemies.

The official GW art on the rhino has some small examples for inscriptions in form of those small jittery blocks of lines. But you'd probably need to use a color other than white. Black maybe. If you feeling fancy you could try to paint the first "letter" in red to get the old book kind of style.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440274a&prodId=prod1080102

 GaussGuy wrote:
that could work, though I have never used weathering powders before, and could you elaborate on "the dry brushing at the edge of the yellow shape" Do you mean the whole body or something in specific.

I would lightly dry brush all of the hard edges with silver to simulate the paint wearing off in those areas (which are typically the most succeptable to wear).
Anywhere the models body/armour changes direction sharply rather than a curve.

I'd also create a darkened/discoloured effect on the power plant stacks in the back. Something to show they've been in use rather than being clean and shiney.

btldoomhammer wrote:
Another idea besides battledamage is painting on the hint of inscriptions, a freehand chapter symbol or kill-count list for defeated enemies.

The official GW art on the rhino has some small examples for inscriptions in form of those small jittery blocks of lines. But you'd probably need to use a color other than white. Black maybe. If you feeling fancy you could try to paint the first "letter" in red to get the old book kind of style.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440274a&prodId=prod1080102

I like that, thats a good idea. lots of flat surfaces to apply that.

 GaussGuy wrote:
that could work, though I have never used weathering powders before, and could you elaborate on "the dry brushing at the edge of the yellow shape" Do you mean the whole body or something in specific.

I use silver only at the edge of part like,around articulation,around the foot, the foot itself. Place that usually, get scratch more rapidly than the rest due to lot of movement . you can do all edge if you want but your model will look old and really battle worn maybe too much.

Before you think about weathering, I'd try to smooth out your yellow, a bit. The overall wash has left a number of pools and runs on relatively flat surfaces that could use some cleaning up. Seems the wash also missed a few spots on inward facing surfaces, like the inside face of the power plant (behind the shoulder socket) and various edges around the knees. If you aren't going to go absolutely crazy with weathering, getting the base looking as good as possible first is well worth the effort. It shows through all but the heaviest layers of grime, chipping, dust, etc.

If/when you do decide to give it some wear and tear, I'd suggest looking up tutorials on the sponge weathering/chipping method. The effect is far more convincing than drybrushing, as the resulting "chips" are solid (as opposed to the dusty effect drybrushing gives) and the pattern is randomized naturally (you still control where you apply it, of course). If you want finer scratches or more subtle abrasion, grab a pencil. Ground up graphite makes a fantastic dark metallic weathering powder and a nice sharp pencil allows you to make fine lines with the same finish. If you use the side of the lead, you can also run very fine lines down hard corners to show softer abrasion (great around feet where paint gets worn down as much, if not more, than it gets chipped off.

Weathering powders open up a whole bunch of extra/alternative options, but there's quite a bit you can do with what you already likely have lying around.