Best way to weather your armor

[XoreX]

Hi all,

I was looking in weathering my armor and came across a few ways to do it.

1-you have the acrylics method

2-acrylics with fuller's earth

3-the hairspray and just fuller's earth.

I was looking at a site where he shows the hairspray fuller's earth method. I like it since it looks like it gives you that nice dirty/dusty look. But I was wondering, since you use hairspray to hold everything in place, how durable is it? and if you guys have tried it, how do it look in person/up close?

You guys say, "don't use sandpaper", but in this method he uses foam sandpaper blocks to sand away the excess, if I do not use sand paper to remove excess what method shoud I use to remove excess.

also, please comment on the different methods of weathering, good points/bad points, effect achieved with different methods.

thanks alot

future TD-1235

[Fraulein]

I don't know if there is a best way, because everyone does it to their personal preference.

I used local muds/clay of different colors. The stuff is like pudding, a little "greasy" and sticks without the hairspray after it is dry. I put it on with a natural sponge to get the different shapes. I used some toothpicks for finer details and lines. And a small stencil sponge for making "blobs"

I think DirtyBoy uses baseball mud, which is good if you don't have that kind of clay all around you.

If I were to do it all over again, I would attempt to do it in one pass. For me, it was difficult to match after I left it for a couple of days and went back to work on it.

In spots where I wanted layers of colors, I would put it down in different patterns. I would do one color, let it dry. Then layer another color. Dry. Final color. Then lightly mist and "blob" it out with the rough side of an old sock.

If I wanted a spot where there was a void, I would mist it lightly. Let it dry partway then lightly brush off the stuff that was wet.

This is a pic of my sampling of colors on a scrap piece of plastic. There are the natural sponges sitting on the lids.

This image shows better color variations, and layers.

[XoreX]

thanks for the info

please keep the advice coming

[DirtyBoy]

I used plain old baseball rubbing mud on mine. Looks awesome and authentic.

[LoveMonkey]

You might want to check with your GML as well, as they have the final say. They might be able to give you some good advice.