Armor Journal Forum

Ok, so here we have a tutorial I devised to try and get some wargames people across the basics of scale modelling weathering techniques. This won a prize on the Australian Wargaming forum for best tutorial". All miniatures are at 28mm (aprox 1/64). I used to build historicals in 1/35 when I was much younger, and I'm looking at getting back into that side of things. But I try and bring a lot of the technique from historical modelling into the wartorn world of the 41st millennium. While a lot of the techniques are relatable, the fact that a wargaming miniature needs to take a lot more wear and tear from handling than a display piece does informs both the sculpting and painting techniques.

http://wargamerau.com/articles.php?id=12

A few shots:










some figure work (28mm scale)




WIP scratchbuild superheavy:

Thanks for sharing!
Another thing I would like to point out is that wargamers don't use putty on their vehicles, or don't try to clean up press-form seams, or drill out gun barrels and exhaust pipes. I think that would only add on to a visual appeal. But on the other hand - it is more about the game itself than what your vehicle looks like. Maybe that is why they are not concern with all this stuff of extra detailing and weathering?

Some do, but as you say, sadly many do not. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that they are usually not working on a single piece at a time but rather trying to get an often quite substantial army finished fairly quickly. So there are a lot of "shortcut" techniques used which I tend to think look pretty average. Another thing to bear in mind is the small scale. Because everything is pretty small, the tendancy is to adopt a hyper exaggerated style to make the piece "pop" on the tabletop. In tournaments your painting score affects your placement, so people tend to go for a style which is high visual impact so it stands out in the poor lighting of a school hall or whatnot. Sadly the kind of "realistic" muted/faded colours and weathering I use does not tend to stand out that much unless you look closely.

Their figure modelling is often really good, but sadly that does not often translate into vehicles.