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Coming from a request/suggestion by Zhetsuken, I'm posting this from some advice I gave him in the thread "Battle-Worn Fire Warriors?" Sorry, it's a little sloppy, as it came directly from a thread referencing Tau specifically, and I have no time to really clean it up. This should help people who are fairly new to modeling and are looking to give their models some wear and tear. Sorry, I don't know how direct quotes work, but it's my whole hour or so's worth of writing anyway.




"For a "melted armor look, you're going to need green stuff, and possibly (at least) a hand drill and an exacto knife. A pencil may also help. This covers plasma and melta hits (Melta should be a little more drastic).

You can do it the easy way, since you already have all of your fire warriors assembled. For this, you just need green stuff. First, decide where you want the shot, and decide if you want it to either be a direct absorbed hit or a glancing "streak". For a direct hit, you would roll a tiny ball of green stuff (smaller for plasma, bigger for melta), and for a streak, you would roll a tiny snake (Keep in mind that a streak should probably go all the way across a flat surface, and to go across any sort of round surface without pitting it first wouldn't look right at all. Also, be sure that the shot is being fired TOWARDS your model. I.E. A glancing shot would go across the shoulder, not up it.). Scuff up the area that you want the green stuff on, just a tiny little bit (The green stuff needs to be able to take to something, or it will come right off). Flatten the green stuff to the affected area (I assume you at least know the very basics of green stuff, at least enough to know that you should keep your tools and hands wet at all time). Smooth out your fingerprint. Now, take a slightly dull pencil (scribble a bit with it if you have to, until it's round at the tip, but don't make it too big at the tip). You might want to put some petroleum on the tip of the pencil, to keep it from peeling off the green stuff. Now, poke at the green stuff until it resembles something like a mottled scar. Now, last step. Petroleum up a plastic card of some sort and VERY gently, press it against the mottled green stuff, and I mean hardly at all. Voila. A very simple melted battle wearing. The only problem with this method is that it sometimes confuses people as to what it actually represents, but at least you don't have to drill or cut into your already assembled model.

You can do it the hard, realistic way, and "pit" it, using a drill bit and an exacto knife. To do a "direct" hit (somewhat unrealistic, as anything hit directly by a plasma or melta weapon should be in need of a coffin, though I guess it could represent an exceptionally powerful angry flashlight), take a reasonably large hand drill bit and twist it into the place you want the shot. Now, form up a little bit of green stuff (enough to fill the hole). Press the green stuff into the hole, flatten it, and peel off all of the excess, careful not to pull the green stuff out of the hole. Now, grab another pencil. Dull this one quite a bit, until it's so fat at the end that it's about the diameter of the hole (if that's at all possible). Get petroleum on the end of the pencil, and press it very gently into the hole, until it will go no further. Pull it out, and you should have a relatively round hole. Now this would be nice for a fatty autogun slug, but that's not what we're looking for, so grab that pencil from the first technique (the very slightly dulled one with the small tip), make sure it's still got petroleum on it, and start poking at the pit until it's very generously dotted, again about like a burn scar. Now, take the fat tipped pencil again, and VERY gently push it back into the hole, but only part of the way. Pull it out, and voila. Direct hit.

Now, the most realistic method is also, of course, the hardest. A glancing hit from a melta or plasma gun requires an exacto knife or a keyhole saw, that pencil from before, Something kind of small cyllindrical object, such as a tootsie pop stick, and some green stuff. First of all, this will require a bit of drawing out. This is kind of hard to explain, so bear with me. Across a flat surface with a hard edge, draw two parallel lines. These lines should be as far apart as you want the glancing shot to be wide. Now, around that hard edge, in the very center of the two lines and down about a fourth of a centimeter, draw a dot. Make it easy to see. Now, connect the dot to both lines, making a V. To do a rounded surface, you should draw another pair of lines. Definetly do not make these very long, as if you do, it will dig way too far into the rounded surface and will look quite awkward. Connect both lines with a V on both ends, like before. Either way, you should have a pencil pattern that looks something like this:

/\
l l
l l
l l
\/ (Crappy, I know, but it gets the job done.)

Remember, all the way across a totally flat surface with the V's around the edges, and a smaller pattern on a rounded surface.

Now, a keyhole saw will make this immeasurably easier, but if you have an exacto knife, that will work. Just remember to be very careful with the sawing motion. Lay it flat on something. You never want to cut towards yourself. First, cut a notch in each straight line, deep enough to know that the knife is in the right place. The idea is to get down to eye level so you can see the V (on a flat surface) or a small amount of line and V (on a rounded surface). Place the knife or saw in a notch, and begin sawing towards the point of the V. Stop when you get to it, slide the tool out, and do the same thing for the other side. Carefully remove the piece of plastic you just cut from your miniature. The carving process of the glancing shot is finished. Luckily, you're playing Tau, which has flat shoulder pads, or this would be a lot harder for you.

Now, form enough green stuff to fill the line. Remove the excess, making sure that it's as flush as possible with the rest of the armor. Now, remember that little tootsie pop stick? Get out the petroleum jelly, and grease it up a bit. Push the stick into the green stuff, as far as it will go. There will be more green stuff pushed out. Again, remove that excess and make it flush with the armor as much as you can. Now, take out that slightly rounded pencil (Coming in handy yet?). Again, repeatedly poke at it until it is completely covered in little pits. Take the tootsie pop stick again, and very gently push it slightly into the gs again. Clean up the edges if they need it. Voila. You should be very proud when you finish one of those. "

"Okay, next up is the natural battle damage! On the plus side, they're a little easier to do and to describe, but you'll be doing a lot more cutting than green stuffing. Always watch out for yourself, and don't pull anything stupid. I don't want to end up sending you to the E.R. (Or Worse; Khorne's Skull Throne) over some FAQ about battle-damaging your Tau.

For this section (At least all but the shuriken/claw/sword marks and what have you), you will invariably need a Hand Drill, preferrably a somewhat large one and a tiny one.

First off is the shots from the Autoguns, Shotguns, and Shootas. These are really pretty easy. You'll need a small hand drill, a little bit of Green Stuff, and a slightly dull pencil (again). Now, envision where you want the shots to be, maybe mark them off if you want to. Take the small hand drill, and drill a little bit into your miniature wherever you wanted a shot to be placed. Now, force some green stuff all the way in there, flatten it, and peel off the excess. Take the pencil, cover the tip in grease, and poke it into the green stuff. Pull it out, make sure the green stuff is done, repeat for all of the bullet holes, and you're done. Easy enough, right? Oh, painting these is pretty simple. A 50/50 mix of dark flesh and bestial brown highlighted on a smaller area by straight bestial brown should do the trick. Experiment with going messily along the edges of the bullet hole with the bestial brown, as if it had chipped off some of the paint on it's way into the armor.

Secondly, battle damage that can represent all sorts of blades, claws, shurikens, etc. (Hopefully your Tau aren't too hardened in close combat. That would be unfortunate). You'll need a knife with a bigger blade than an exacto, but NOT one with a serated edge. Try a pocketknife. This one is simple. Mark a line, and saw back and forth on that line until you're somewhat deep into the armor, pull out when you think you're done, and voila. Just try not to have to put the knife back into the cut, or it will come out looking like a modeler was carving up his models, not a Tyranid Warrior (Don't lie. You know how many times that's happened.) This one can use the painting techniques described above, but it may be a little bit more difficult than a bolter hole.

Thirdly, the Boltgun crater. Now here's a fun one. For this, you're gonna need an exacto knife, a hand drill, and a shoulderpad detatched from one of your warriors. Now, remember, a Bolter Round explodes on impact, so this is not just gonna be some neat little dent in the side of your armor. It's a whole lot more visceral than that. But this is also probably the most dangerous "wear and tear" conversion, so just remember that and be careful. Okay, first, take a somewhat large hand drill, and drill through the shoulderpad all the way wherever you want the bullet to have hit. Keep in mind that it's gonna get a lot bigger than just this little hole, so place it somewhere near the center (unless you want to knock out a corner from your shoulderpad. Not that there's anything wrong with that). Now, start taking out very small chunks of the shoulderpad at a time (You should have quite a bit of shoulderpad left when you're done, and you don't want any of the original hole to show). The more ragged the better. It may help if you make a couple "starting notches" outward from the center hole to get you started. When you can no longer see the center hole (Careful, don't get too carried away with it), slightly chip away at any of the sharper edges you may have made. The final step is to make a few small lines outward to represent the armor material being pushed backward by the force of the initial blow. Once you have those in, you're done, and you can now glue the shoulderpad back on your Fire Warrior. The hole may look a little big on the first one you make, but that doesn't necessarily look bad, and you'll get better at it.

While I'm discussing weathering, I might as well mention a technique for splattering your Fire Warrior's boots with mud and dirt(if you want). It's very simple, just be very careful to not overdo it, and only put it on areas where it's reasonable (Just a little bit around the feet adds plenty of effect). Simply mix together some elmers glue, some basing sand and rocks (mostly sand), and some dark flesh. Apply it with an old brush a little around your model's feet (if it seems appropriate for the terrain you've based him on). Dirt is really easy. Simply stipple (Remember, the stroke not poke) around the feet and lower legs with a sparse layer of bestial brown, being more generous the closer to the ground you get."



Seeing as I'm about to be without internet again for around a month or so, I'll be really happy if I even helped out one person with some simple advice. The Dakka community will see me around later, I can assure you.