need some help with dents, cracks, and battle damage on armour

[zombiepaints]

I am currently working on a sci-fi peice from excalibur's fearless line and need some help with creating dents, and other battle damage on the armour. i am wanting to mainly put a dent in the chest plate and the some minor damage and wear on the rocket launchers on his shoulders.

 

[Einion]

I am currently working on a sci-fi peice from excalibur's fearless line and need some help with creating dents, and other battle damage on the armour. i am wanting to mainly put a dent in the chest plate and the some minor damage and wear on the rocket launchers on his shoulders.

By painting the illusion or actually cutting into the casting?

Einion

 

[zombiepaints]

i was thinking of just painting but info on cutting would be much appreciated also

 

[Aliengod3]

I would look up some pictures on google. fF you look at pictures of dents, you can see the concavity of the dent causes light to be darker towards the top of the dent and lighter towards the bottom. This is the same principle for scratches and other battle damage as well.

Also check out some of the works of yellow one. He has a good grimgor ironhide model with armor he painted to look like beaten metal sheets. Here are some links to works of his that may be helpful.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/247465
http://www.coolminiornot.com/138580 (good example of a dent)
http://www.coolminiornot.com/253954 (good dents too)

hope this helps

 

[Einion]

For the painted illusion of scratches it's really very simple at heart, you just paint a dark line with a lighter line immediately underneath it. Dents are somewhat similar but with softer edges basically - use reference pics, try to paint what you see. There are lots of prior threads on this I'm sure; here's a good one as a starting point, Painting realistic scratches.

To physically make a dent in a casting there are a number of techniques you can use (including a hot needle or similar for plastic kits) but it's probably safest and most controllable to cut/carve with a sharp hobby knife. I like to use the rounded blades for this kind of thing, the equivalent of an X-Acto #10, rather than the normal triangular blade with a sharp tip but experiment, see what you prefer. If you need to smooth the edges of a carved dent out a little once you're done cutting then fine steel wool is good; 0000 grade if you can get it.

This is the kind of thing where if you haven't done it before probably a good idea to practice on a test piece rather than directly on an expensive mini - you can even practice on sprues to get a feel for it.

Einion

 

[zombiepaints]

thanks for the help may start with just scratchs and work up to dents for thus peice.

 

[zombiepaints]

i have tried out a couple scratches and a dent on a test peice and they leave a bit to be desired as this was a first attempt. as far as the dents go should i paint the outside edge all the way around dark as well as at the top with a thin coat as i would if i were feathering and then highligh the bottom edge? or is it better to use a more solid color and just do the top edge dark and lower edge light? the thing i am most unhappy with is that i couldnt get a good effect of it being concave. and is there any difference in technique between a round dent and a dent made from the impact of say a bullet?

 

[Einion]

It's hard to describe verbally how to achieve a realistic dents in paint so I'd again suggest you line up some reference pics and try to paint what you see, it's the best way.

With scratches, not sure if this is the problem you're having but it's fairly common when trying it first, try to paint the lines thin as you can; they tend to look best when they're really finely done. References can help with these too, to get the right kind of shapes and positions but with practice you get a feel for where they'll look good.

Einion