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Hello all! I was just wondering if someone has a good technique for making your models look like it has just rained or is raining? Thanks!

Well, it would be hard to make it look like it's raining unless you have learned how to suspend materials in mid-air...

You can make the base (and the miniature) muddy/walking on mud. Look at the tutorials section of Dakka for mud effects, or google it. There are lots myriads of tutorials for mud.

As for making your miniature look wet, maybe try brush-on gloos varnish, although you should test it first on a sacrificial miniature/surface to know how it will look like and if it is the effect that you want.

as for making models look wet, what i do is areas of cloth get painted darker in spots where liquid would gather (top down for rain) and metalic/hard, non-absorbent materials will get a gloss top coat...ive only done this on a few models, all dead/dying infantry that are bleeding, i havent actually tried it for rain

Yeah, gloss varnish over weathering pigments might work. I've seen some cool dioramas of like Battle of the Bulge stuff where everything is filthy muddy and wet looking. The pigments help get that 'just started raining' look if you do them in streaks, as you would see on a dirty car where the rain has been running down the side of it. Tough affect to get right, though.

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As indicated by the variety of methods suggested already, it depends on what you're painting. Cloth would absorb water and darken (achieved by paint), non-absorbent surfaces would get beaded buildup (hard to separate beads, so a selective patch of gloss would be the easiest analogue), dirty surfaces would streak (pigments, streaked oil paints, or carefully applied lines of ink/wash), etc.

I don't think any of these would immediately convey the intent on their own, though, so I'd recommend trying to combine at least two of them. If painting Guardsmen, for example, I'd darken the upward facing areas of the cloth uniform and consider basing them on mud or glossed grass with small varnish/clear resin puddles. If painting a tank, I'd scatter small pools of gloss varnish on the horizontal flats after giving an overall satin finish, as well as applying some streaked dust.

I'd also suggest keeping the color scheme generally darker and more muted than you might, otherwise. While sun-showers are far from unheard of, rain usually implies clouds and darkened skies translate to darkened models.

I would paint the model as normal and then in area's use water effects from Gw, a small amount would surely make it look like water has fallen on the unit and a few puddles on the base would add to the effect.
Not the most complex answer here but i think it terms of cost and ease its something a few people would surely go for.

if you want rain, take a hot glue gun, spoon, and a bowl of water.
When you squeeze the glue gun, there is a certain amount of force applied to the glue shover that crams the glue into the heated cone. Squeeze it sloooooowly into the spoon, and as soon as it connects, lower the spoon slowly into the water,

Hot glue floats, so what you'll get is a long thin column of hot glue, stretched out and water hardened.
You can't make rain float in the air, but by putting bits of these columns onto a structure, then varnishing it, you can get some cool rain effects by just suggesting that there is clear substance falling on your structure.

A gloomy atmosphere is a good start. Then Glossing equipment such as earlier poster suggested.
I prefer a swampy atmosphere to a muddy one, Here are some examples.

AustonT is on the right track. What you are after is visual cues hinting at rain, not actual rain.

Muddy terrain and weathering on boots/tracks, finished with a gloss coat. Put boot, tire, or track imprints in the bases, and partially fill them with a water medium. Darker outfits.

You can also do some rain streaking weathering. You can see it in the tank model above, as well as this one. I wasn't going for a rain effect, but you can see at some of the joints and rivets (especially towards the bottom) the rain streaking effect.



Again, the key here is visual cues, not actually mimicking rain. You just want it to look like it has been rained on.