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I began working on my army again and I had this old rhino laying around and I decided it was time to put it through hell. I enjoyed the process but I'm having trouble making my weathering really stand out and "pop". what do I do to make the weathering really come to life?
Comments and suggestions are welcome.

I have to say that is some pretty excellent weathering. I think when you add some detailing such as unit and chapter markings (with their own weathering) you will have a really nice looking rhino and the weathering will pop just with those little extra details.

I think the weathering is absolutely fantastic, as it is. The lack of the desired "pop," I'd say, is due to your use of predominantly muted tones - the blue is faded, the darkened steel flows into the blue, the layer of dust softens the transitions and further drops the saturation, etc. -all of which results in relatively little contrast. Brighter metallic chips, especially when underlined (light-catching lower edge highlighted with a very fine line of your base color, lightened), and starker, brighter rust patches are much higher contrast, although ultimately less realistic. Keeping the base blue more saturated would also up the contrast, but again you'd be losing out on a very convincing effect.

This Rhino looks realistically abandoned, as opposed to having the more common, stylized battle damage. I think SilverMK2 is right in thinking that more detailing/markings will help bring the model to life, both in terms of fluff and visual interest. Personally, I would go that route and keep the more subtle, realistic effects you've managed. However, if immediate visual impact is what you're after, you may want to swap out your current techniques for more stylized methods, like the aforementioned underlined chipping and high contrast stippled rust.

Thanks for the input. It is helpful to know what I can do to make it better. I have read about that chipping technique using lighter tones under rust chips to up the contrast. And I need to add the insignia for sure.

Updated pics. I started this for a friend and now I'm really in the stew because everything I tried went wrong on this model. I'm just generally bummed out with how this guy turned out. I just did the paint job and the mud splattering is to cover up a pretty terrible attempt at some weathering on the legs that went not so well due to the fact that I base coated with vallejo model air aluminum which is pretty bright and hard to really add too with contrast.

This is the bottom level of the wizards tower and i've hit a wall. I don't really know which direction to go or what to add now. Sounds pretty lame but I could use some assistance I'm sort of reaching the end of what I want to do to it and just move on and finish the next level but I think i should add something to make it less yawn inducing.

hit them both with a dark wash. might go so far as to dip the tower as it has so much area to cover

 eohall wrote:
hit them both with a dark wash. might go so far as to dip the tower as it has so much area to cover

2nded - agrax earthshade or any sepia/darkbrown wash would work wonders to give the tower some depth.

that and perhaps go for some rust on the gate and bits of flock here and there for grass growing between the stones?

I also think you are being hard on yourself with the Rhino and Dreadknight - the Weathering on the Rhino was awesome and subtle and the mud splatter (despite being a coverup) worked well to give some life to that model. Keep it up

Ty for tips.

Did anyone find a replacement for charadon granite?