Enamels are a great way to enhance your weathering, from realistic to grimdark levels of rust and grime! In this terrain piece I've used enamels over acrylic weathering to give the Necromunda tabletop setting an old and falling apart feel.
Full credit goes to the Painting Baron and his YouTube video "Painting and Weathering Grimdark 40K terrain", well worth a watch.
Foundation work
The initial painting is all with acrylics, and it remains decidedly not-Grimdark during these stages :)
- Airbrushed primer and base coats, along with airbrushed highlights
- Stippling, both heavy application areas, and some small spots here and there
- Base colour stippled over decals to look like paint has chipped off
- Bright colour stipples which will look like surface imperfections
After the picture above;
- Application of dark metallic with Vallejo's Exhaust Manifold, my favourite take on gun metal, being a bit dirtier brown.
- Some black wash to help shadows
- Some dark brown acrylic painting of panel lines to make them really prominent.
Streaking Enamels
Enamels are interesting as they can be used as additive and/or subtractive techniques, both of which where used in this terrain. I just used AK's Rust Streaks for the yellow sections.
Paint short streaks of the enamel rust in very straigh vertical lines, let it dry for a short time), then with a rough or saw toothed brush, dampened with AK's Odourless Thinner, gently run down the streaks. This will soften the edge of the streak and also fade the end to nothing. This is the subtractive technique as we remove part of the enamel to soften the effect. Then allow the enamel to fully set, which I left overnight.
Rust comes from chipped paint areas, or runs down vertical edges, so careful placement will help sell the look.
One application wasn't grungy enough so I did more streaks, some patches near acrylic chipping. Allow to dry, then a final filtering in recesses to draw attention to the brighter central area. So some additive techniques to build up the effect over a few applications.
The metallic and blue sections used a black wash, with both AK Rust Streaks and Light Rust Deposits applied, to break up the surface.
Now we are looking Grimdark!
Painting Recipe
The AK Rust Streaks product picture also includes a very nice photo of rust, which is the effect we are looking for.
