Monday 27 May 2019

Whether to weather?

If you follow me on Twitter, or you caught my previous post, you may have noticed that I've started dabbling with my Warhammer 40,000 Enforcers again. My Adeptus Arbites sanctioned, Judge Dredd inspired Enforcers who police the mean streets of the hive city, Kruenta Karoliina Arx Rotunda.

I've started painting them, and have found myself tweaking the colour scheme in ways I didn't expect.

In the Judge Dredd comic, along with their red-rimmed helmets and gold shoulder pads, the Judges of Mega-City One sport several green items on their uniform – boots, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads and pouches. In the 2012 Carl Urban film they clearly felt this approach wasn't going to be gritty enough, so although they kept some of the green details, the colour was made so much darker that it was hardly noticeable in the final grade of the movie.

When I started on my troopers, I wanted them to look like the darker, almost entirely black-uniformed movie version, but decided to switch out the dark green altogether in favour of a dark tan leather colour that would probably make for a more easily identifiable texture in miniature form.




And with that I eventually got to the above stage where the test model is just about complete.

Or is he?

Originally, several years ago, when I first envisioned this project, my plan was to make my Enforcers look more worn. A little beaten up. Dusty, battered and generally in-use.


Like these guys

But now I've got this far, I'm not sure the model will really benefit from a lot of weathering. The dust might blur the already difficult to detect line between the harder body armour and the slightly softer black leather jacket and trousers. So I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. Do I push ahead, sticking to the original plan, and run the risk of making an irreversible mistake, or just stick with what I've got, and let the weathering go the way of the green boots?

The answer is I'm just not sure yet.

ADDICTION CHALLENGE
REMAINING: 44 or 45?



3 comments:

  1. You could do the dust with a simple dry brush. In doing so you'll maintain the shading in place and separation should remain obvious. I'd do it very lightly though. I think a model like this you'll find less is more.

    You could also do some simple battle damage too, like scratches and scuffs. Just a few to give the impression you're after.

    I think if you combined some light dry brushing for dust, and add a few scratches, then it could give you what you're after and look good.

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    Replies
    1. Nice one Thor. I hadn’t thought of dry brushing the dust. Good plan. I might give it a go around his boots and see if I want to add more up top. I’ll probably also add a touch of rust and verdigris on the metal areas too. Just enough to give the hint of some other colours.

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    2. I do doing it with dry brushing because it looks like dust when you're done if you do it light enough. It gives it a dusty, chalky look that's perfect.

      Good call on the rust touches. Small details like that go a long way.

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