SANDTROOPER WEATHERING PROCESS

Use Woodland Scenics pigments - for armour weathering, but look on eBay too for UK suppliers. You need Raw Umber (mfg. part # C1221), Yellow Ochre (mfg. part # C1223), and Burnt Umber (mfg. part # C1222), although I didn't bother to use the Yellow Ochre for my weathering. We used THIS TUTORIAL too which is bril.

TAKE YOUR TIME and practice on only ONE PIECE of armour until you get the desired look - that's a mistake we made, we did the whole set and had to rub it ALL back and redo, wasting nearly a day. Use a sponge to apply, let it dry, then rub back with kitchen roll. Apply the darkest shade first and work towards the lightest shade. Use damp cotton wool on the dried pigments to add a watery effect and to smudge certain patches. Think logically - on raised parts of armour there would be "rub marks" and clean white will show through - on creases and dints the dirt would accumulate. On the lower legs there'd be more dirt, and in the helmet crevices. Use as many pics as you can find for reference - again Mike TD-1536's weathering is the best I've seen and is what we used as inspiration.

Finally, seal the armour with Windsor & Newton fixative spray - which is used for artwork but is tougher than hairspray (which a lot of others use) and didn't yellow my armour and so far has protected the weathering very well!

First layer of raw umber applied - look at that speedy blurred hand!!!! :D Waiting for it to dry All body parts done with raw umber Dried and rubbed back below Second layer of burnt umber applied - BE WARNED! This was much harder to rub back than the first colour - whether or not this was due to the pigment itself, or maybe because it was applied onto another layer of pigment - but we had to remove loads of it and it took ages!!   Helmet with second layer of pigment rubbed back, a damp cloth was used to create clean white patches that will be filled with another colour or Fullers Earth later on.   All other body pieces rubbed back and patch-done with a damp cloth     More left to do - more layers of colour and rubbing back, then Fullers Earth to apply and general "crusty" and water-stain effects to do! Finished weathering pics HERE.