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He all,

Got myself a spanking new marine force and after assembling I'm going for a nice silver armour color.
The only thing I realy want is that the marines look dirty and battle used

What is the easiest way to do this? I paint them all silver and then what? Brown wash? or give them a light brown drybrush?

I'd say a light brown drybrush over the legs and a brown wash over the whole miniature, see how that looks.

You could also go in and do flecking by adding some tinbits color to different parts of the miniature to give them a corroded or battle worn look as well in addition to drybrushing/washes.

Best of luck, and please do post pictures!

Take care,

-Red__Thirst-

Just add a paris hilton miniature to the mix... that definitely adds a skanky and used theme to the list!

Seriously though I'd avoid the drybrush brown on the legs unless you really know what you are doing and aiming for (from experience ruining some perfectly good paint jobs). I second Red_Thirst' suggestion of flecking, Using a toothpick and some terracotta/beastial brown.

A method I use, and learned from model railroading is to use artists chalks. Get a cheap set with earth like colors then with a piece of sand paper sand down the chalk over a plate or plastic lid. Then use a dry brush and dust your model. You can achieve rust, dirt and grime very easily and it looks quite realistic without being over the top. Dont like a section, wipe it off with a damp rag. When finished a shot of dull coat seals the whole thing.

Go look on the net at model rail road sites using this technique...I love it

paint the armor with tin bitz first, then heavily dry brush with bolt gun metal, then wash with chesnut ink mixed with ard' coat and water, then high light with bolt gun metal.

(be sure to not cover up the crevasses when dry brushing, this is where the tin bitz should stay.

Usually when I want a heavier look to metal armor I will start with a black base coat, paint on a dark metal (I think bolt gun is the GW equivalent) then wash with black ink. I then dry brush the dark metal on a bit, then edge with a lighter silver for highlights. I might dry brush with the silver too if I am looking for the "once was shiney" look, but only very lightly.
I find this gives a very pocked, old metalic look, like a lawn mower blade that isn't rusty, just not polished and shiney due to hard work.

I don't do weathering at all really, though I have been meaning to start. There is a really nice tutorial by Grety Death on the subject... somewhere around here.

If you're doing metallics, and them weathered, then I'd suggest washes.

Apply a thin black wash followed by a thin brown wash.

Strams: That sounds pretty interesting. Do you have any pictures?

If you want them "battle worn" don't forget to add some sort of bullet holes, scars (on non-helmeted faces), etc that all make your Marines look like they've seen some combat. I like to take a razor blade and run it over the eye of a space marine helmet, and shave a groove out over top deep enough to make it stand out, but not deep enough to look fake. You'd think he just took a chainsword to the face. I like to do similar to bare Space Marine faces too, then add a slight red to give the impression of a scar. Also, a small drill bit can add some instant bullet holes to shoulder pads. Good luck with your project.

For metal I suggest really thin glazes of black and brown inks, you can even try purple and green for richer colours, in several layers then repeating the top highlights. That's if you want it to look like it hasn't been washed in ages! Glazes are my greatest recommendation though, if you apply a drybrush a glaze will smooth out some of that fuzziness.