A Galaxy In Flames Tutorial: Sponge Weathering on Light/Dark Vehicles.

Today we pick up where we left off yesterday. The tank hull from the Rhino we have been using for out tutorials on Oil Paints is the same hull being used for the weathering tutorial. In this tutorial, we will cover the use of the 'sponging' technique for weathering/battle damaging vehicles.

I have chosen to focus on light grey and black, as these are a great starting point. Green, red and blue will feature in my next sponge tutorial.

To start off with, we have a small selection of parts and paints required. I have chosen to use a couple of different paints, but the brand isn't too important, they are just here for demonstration purposes.

 Ok, so here is a bit of sponge I have torn off. It is important that you have a rough edge, as a flat surface will leave a flat pattern. We want a rough, inconsistent texture to be applied by the sponge, as it is more organic then a set of identical marks.

 The first layer applied is a small black layer. I am using black as it contrasts heavily with the white/grey hull. We want to start dark on a light hull, and work our way down to a light colour, and then we want to do the opposite with the dark hull, that is, working from light to dark.

It is important to not place the black on too heavily, as the black will quickly overpower the grey hull.

 The second layer uses a dark grey. this is the main weathering layer, and is used to place the majority of damage. With a vehicle, the forward hull will suffer greater damage, so I have sponged slightly heavier on the front of the exhaust and sloping front portions of the hull.

Finally, I have used a very light grey to apply small chips onto a couple of areas and plate edges. The light grey will help to break up the darker colours beneath.

 With the black hull, I have used the light grey first. Again, this is for contrast, and should not overpower the base colour.

 The dark grey has now been sponged over the light grey, diluting the lighter tones and giving a more natural feel.

 Finally, a very light black sponging has been done over the previous colours. This helps to further break up the hull, allowing for a more mottled colour pattern.

So here you have it, the finished hull halves. I have not weathered the side hatch, as I had glued it in place earlier, but I will attempt to make up for this in the next tutorials.

 Also, I would like to apologize for the glossy sheen on the hull, the gloss varnish applied earlier to seal the oils is reflecting the light no matter what angle I lay the hull at.