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Fantastic, I have been wary of buying powders due to the lack of good tutorials. What kind of a thinner do you use?

Are you wetting up the model with thinner then brushing the powder on?

How is the cannon looking?

Dear god, that's cool!

Lorne wrote:Fantastic, I have been wary of buying powders due to the lack of good tutorials. What kind of a thinner do you use?

Are you wetting up the model with thinner then brushing the powder on?

How is the cannon looking?

I use Tamiya X-20 Thinners for the powders (see pictures on page 1). I dip the brush into the thinners so a tiny amount of thinners is on the brush. I then dip the brush into the powder and then put it onto the model. The first stage goes on like a paste. I use a little more thinners if I feel the powder isn't adhering to the model. For each subsequent layer I apply less and less thinners, so the final layer it smore like a dry brush than anything.

Here is the update so far.

I'm going to use a method here to apply some powders to represent stuck on dust and sand. This is a great method to add some texture as the powder builds up like clotted muck sticking on a tank. MIG to a great range of powders for all environments. Ideally one in the you need 3 colours, a dark colour, light colour, and one in the middle. Here's my weapons of choice for this method..........

Vallejo Matt Varnish
MIG P031 Vietnam Earth
MIG P037 Gulf War Sand
MIG P027 Light Dust
MIG Pigment Fixer

First job, Paint a layer of the Matt Varnish over the area you want to add the powders to. The varnish must be wet when you start to apply the powders, so do it in small areas at a time. DO NOT let the varnish dry before you apply the powders..............

Next stage is to add the first Powder, the dark colour, in this case the Vietnam Earth. You apply this by pushing the brush into the powder, and puting it onto the wet varnish. The varnish will soak up the powder. It is not necessary to completely cover the area, the idea here is to keep the first layer wet, in order to soak up the 2nd layer. You can see the powder on the brush is applied as a powder, only turning into a paste like layer, once its been applied.

Here I've added the Light Dust whilst the 1st layer was still wet. This layer isn't so much painted on, its more stabbed on to produce random patterns in the dust. The top half has the 2nd layer on, the bottom half is just the 1st layer. Notice how its still wet when you apply the 2nd layer.

And here's the final top layer. This is stabbed on. Now they've built up the layers its now looks like realistic built up sand. I needed to add a small amount of the varnish to my brush to in parts where the final layer was struggling to adhere. Here are some close up of the details, and the finished underside of the Trakk. I'll now with a large brush apply a layer of the MIG Pigment fixer. You DO NOT paint this onto the powder. Its more like you drop the solution onto the powder and let it run over it. If you paint it, you just mix all the powder up.

Amazing! I've had to clean a 5-ton truck with a year of Iraq dirt caked onto it and it didn't look as bad as that does. It took me 24 hours to clean that sucker and this looks like a week job. great job!

Here's some more weathering that I've now done on the Kannon Muzzle and the Exhausts. The weapons of choice here are Tamiya Weathering Master Set B for the 'Soot' Colour, and the MIG P023 Black Smoke Powder. First I apply the Tamiya stuff around the Exhausts and muzzlem drawing the colour down over the area in lines to give it a random feel and to blend it into the surrounding areas on the model.

The MIG Powder I mix with Tamiya X-20 Thinners to form a paint, and use this on the tips of the exhaust and muzzke. Used in this manner is gives a very heavy matt black colour. I've used the Tamiya stuff to put some streaks elsewhere on the model to add another layer of dirt and grime.

Here's the finished product. All the weathering techniques I've shown above is what's finished the weathering on this model. I Have to thank the Wife for the idea of what to put on the flip chart, so she thought a Grot shouting out reminding the Boyz how many 'Teef' they'll be paid for Space Marine Kills.

The Kannon Shell coming out the barrel is not glued on, nor is the Kannon so its packs up easier. I chopped the original shell off the muzzle flash and put a smaller one on that looks like it will actually fit through the barrel.

Any comments or questions are welcome, hope this tutorial helps someone. 2 down, 1 to go!

Looks pretty awesome. Seems like the bottom being so weathered that the top should be more so. Well unless it drove through mud.

Pure awesomeness.

Excellent work. The new shell is a big improvement over the old one, and the flip chart is pure genius.

it looks so orky!

Bad comment first. Not to keen on the shell shooting out the barrel.

Otherwise, this has to be one of the most creative, well carried out models I've seen in a while. You got some serious talent there. This is top stuff.