So yeah basically Big Z busted out some killer work by scratch building a custom mammoth of a beam weapon for his AEUG MG Mk II 2.0 so I'm just trying to use any spare time I have to hustle up and get the rest of this kits armor painted and weathered so I can get to making a diorama. I've been messing around with glow powders trying to cook up a nice glow in the dark green for the eyes and sensors but, the finish always comes out rough no matter what. I'll probably just paint the lenses green and get some highlighting done with a fine brush.
A lot of the weathering techniques I've used in this build are very easy and rewarding. Because the Real Grade line of Bandai Gundam kits are 1/144 scale I had a hard time with getting salt and hairspray weathering techniques to fit the scale without looking ridiculous. Some of the damage around the kit is actually there in the form of hobby knife knicks and indentationss and the other small dings and scratches are just painted on. I saw my friend Kamm do this on his Sazabi last year. He hand paints a lot more and a lot better than I can so my weathering/damage is naturally less refined haha. None the less I got the painted illusion trick from him and used the actual knicks to make the ones without physical depth look more convincing. For chipping the decals I just chipped them with a hobby knife after they had soaked up some Mr. Mark Softer. I found its usually good to reapply more Mark Softer after the chipping so none of decals remain peeled up or otherwise protruding from their surface.
Everything else is just washes in german grey (acrylic), 50/50 rust/blue grey (acrylic), and black (enamel) (for filters and panel lines.) Most of the washes are brushed on using 91% isopropyl alcohol as a thinning agent for my acrylics (vallejo and model masters; so that they dry and stain fast), and Ronson lighter fluid for my enamels (panel lining and airbrushed filters to tie the shading together a little better.) The only other thing I can think to mention is a little technique a guy from my local hobby shop told me about. He suggested I try making oil stains, burn marks, and residue by mixing acrylic and enamel paint together. The paints do not mix well or at all and the acrylics gum up while the enamel carries the residue. This makes for some kind of cool looking effects (imho) for weathering around vents and thrusters. I guess I could ramble about shading for a while but I go through a pretty long and tedious process that yields results not much different than your average pre-shading/post-shading.
Thanks for reading and checking out my work and dont forget to visit MECHA LOUNGE and see what the community is up to! We have some really cool stuff planned for a huge group build coming 2013 that you won't want to miss out on! Also see what Big Z is up to here at our BUILD OFF thread.
