October 19 2007 | The green stuff weathered (first step)

Here is the same ar intake after a bit of work. I have been basically -repainting/ screening the airbrushed color with lighter shades so that could produce some discolorations ,and also various run offs on the inside of the air intake. Next will come some further discolorations and maybe the rust -or maybe I will proceed with the rest of the greenish metal.

October 20 2007 | The green stuff weathered (2nd step)

Well, to weather the chimney, I first wet the surface

October 20 2007 | The green stuff weathered (2nd step)

I then put some lighter shade and diluted paint and proceed to screen the places where I want some lighter colour to appear.
Well, screening a light colour over a darker background .. it takes some time and quite a few layers before you end up really seeing something but it works!

October 20 2007 | The green stuff weathered (2nd step)

The black run offs on the contrary work pretty well after a single apply.
Just wet (not too much) the right place and then -with a steady hand- just draw with very few diluted paint the run offs -the fact that ythe surface is wet will diffuse just a little bit the black paint; And then  you can retouch or erase the run offs using your brush.

October 22 2007 | The green stuff weathered (3d step, my "drybrush")

Okay, as you can see from the picture, I used only 3 colours for this, I blend them, and I apply them as a not much diluted screen on the parts that would normally stand out as highlights if being drybrushed. That's it in fact, i never do any real drybrush on my models because the effect is too hard and visually quite crap.

October 22 2007 | The green stuff weathered (4th step -inks)

That's right! Ugly Citadel inks! I need some deep highlights on some special part of the green so I made an extra screening on the high highlights using a diluted mix of yellow and green. Believe me the whole colour starts to shine this way, so you want to be careful while using them -better 4 successive inks screening than a big one.
It does a very nice shiny metalic feel about the whole, quite pretty :)

Actually, the trick with citadel inks... I painted for some time some citadel stuf when i was a teen. At some point I got fed up of working alongside a trademark so I stopped and tries to forgot what i had learn there which was a very stupid idea. *inks* and how to use them to make shine the colour underneath was certainly the best thing I learned there.

I have also been using some inks to make the bolts stand out wherever there is some bolts on the diorama :)
Tomorrow, more tricks and the completed green parts -ready before the rusting!

October 24 2007 | A bit of colour theory

One day late compared to what i wrote, sorry for this.
Time to explain something about this diorama: i want to create some light effect a bit comparable to the one I did on Koktebel -which means, a sundown, which will tint all the colours from one specific angle.
The picture below is pretty carricatural of course as the "other" side of the gun is certainly as a work in progress state, but yet, most of the side that won't be bathed by the sun will appear *a lot* darker, with very few high highlights etc.
I have been sitting in my garden quite a bit these past days, looking at what the sun was doing at sundown, and it certainly tints the green in a very beautiful shade.
Oh well, maybe it will end in the dustbin too.
that won't be very easy to paint each element according to the position of the sun, and to set the shadows of each object according to all the other objects etc etc..
But then I could also do the same diorama over and over again, but I won't :)

btw, I have been adding a *new* diorama in the galleries, it's called "The Abbey", and
is from 1994/1995..

October 24 2007 | The green is done

Now the green is done, it will be time for quite a bit of rust :)