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Hello! I've just finished building my two Armiger Warglaives and I plan to use them for my Minotaurs Space Marines, so in the spirit of the Minotaurs being absolute jackasses I had the idea to make the Knights something they had "claimed" whilst "purging traitors" or something to that effect, basically having the Knights driven by particularly capable chapter serfs or failed Marine aspirants (Whichever would make most sense). The idea for why they have them doesn't really matter in the end (it most probably breaks the lore though...)

So the idea is to have the Knights painted mostly in the same theme as the Minotaurs (Bronze/brass and red), but I'm keen on sneaking in a bit of blue or other stark contrasting colours on the edges of the armour plates to give it a look of a quick repaint or flaking paintjob, maybe even with parts of a symbol visible somewhere. I'm particularly keen on making it a Ultramar Household, but I'm not very familiar on Knight Households, so I'd also welcome suggestions in that regard. So yeah, any suggestions on how to achieve the mentioned effect? Should I start with the "old paintjob" where I want that to show, and then paint over what I don't need, or is there another method? How would you go about getting a flaking paint effect? Some kind of "overlay" perhaps?

Salt/hairspray weathering?

You basically paint it the old colors, seal it, apply a layer that can be brushed/scrubbed off, paint it the new colors, scrub, then seal it to prevent more paint from flaking.

This is just from what I’ve heard, never tried it myself. But sounds like what you are looking for.

Yes, hairspray method.

Paint the "old" colours.
Matte varnish.
Hairspray.
Paint the "new" colours.
Take a brush and some warm water - you'll be able to peel off the new paint.
When it's done gloss varnish then finish with whatever varnish you prefer.

Hmm... I've been looking into this method you guys mentioned and it seems great for a larger weathering, but would it work for smaller areas?

Besides not having a bunch of the tools for that particular job (and having a bit of a tight budget at the moment xD), I'm not sure I want to go for it straight up...

Would it perhaps work if I tried to peel the "new" colour off using my nails or some kind of scraper, after varnishing the old paint? I just want some of it to show through the edges really

Very difficult to not go through both layers but if you're really careful and you apply a really good coat of gloss varnish over the old colours then maybe.

The buy-nothing version of this is paint the new colours and then sponge weather the old colours.

I'm curious about this method - any Youtube videos you can point me to that show it in use?

Also, I imagine you can tape off the areas you don't want affected if you want to use it for a smaller area.

You can do the salt weathering technique without varnish and hair spray.

I did the following just using water to stick the salt on. If you only want a few bits scraped off then only put the salt on a few small areas.

Scott-S6 wrote:Very difficult to not go through both layers but if you're really careful and you apply a really good coat of gloss varnish over the old colours then maybe.

The buy-nothing version of this is paint the new colours and then sponge weather the old colours.

Any suggestions on the type of sponge for that method? I've never tried that on miniatures before, but I might give that a shot.

Flinty wrote:You can do the salt weathering technique without varnish and hair spray.

I did the following just using water to stick the salt on. If you only want a few bits scraped off then only put the salt on a few small areas.
[Picture Snip]

That method still requires a airbrush right? I own a cheap one, but I don't really have a workspace for it... (Not enough air circulation in my apartment, so the pigment particles tend to stick in the air) so I'd prefer a brush method is possible. Worst case scenario I'll pack it out and try, since it's small areas that I need to "paint over".

RejjeN wrote:

Any suggestions on the type of sponge for that method?

The kind you use for washing dishes. If you're buying some for this purpose then firmer is better.

Well I settled for the simplest solution and painted the old paint first, varnished it and then painted over with the new paint before attempting to scratch it off at points, to varying degrees of success. Trying to use transfer decals with the old paint was a bit of a mistake, as despite the varnish they came off easily, and many points were both hard to scratch so I had to use some different tools for the job and so it sometimes got scratched down to the primer. But in the end I think it turned out ok, just gonna have to put some more effort into making the old owners a tiny bit more obvious with the next one

Thanks for all the suggestions and tips, I'll keep it in mind when I get to painting the second Armiger, since I can't be arsed painting it right away as I originally intended...

Here's some average pictures of the tabletop quality paintjob. I'll (probably not) get around to highlighting and such properly when the rest of the army is on the same level xD