Weathering & Battle Damage
Add realistic wear, chips, scratches, rust, and dirt to make models look battle-worn.
Weathering is storytelling with paint: chips, rust, mud, and dust that say this armour has been worn, this tank has been driven. It always goes on last, over the finished paint job, and it obeys one law — damage happens where the world actually touches the model. Chips gather on leading edges and around handles, mud climbs the lower legs, dust settles on upward faces. And restraint is the entire skill: three believable chips tell a story, thirty random ones just look like a mistake, so we place each mark deliberately and step back often.
Best For
Recommended Paint Types
Step-by-Step
Finish and dry the base paint job completely — weathering is always the final layer.
For chips: dab a torn scrap of blister-foam sponge into a dark brown-black for chips, earth tones for mud, pale tan for dust at single cream (so marks stay crisp), dab most of it off on a towel, then press it lightly against the leading edges, lower surfaces, and contact points — especially the edges and corners that would take knocks, where knocks actually land.
For scratches: with your torn blister-foam sponge + size 0 round, pull fine, short lines of the same dark tone along edges that see wear, then pick out the centre of the largest chips with a metallic glint.
For dirt and dust: drybrush earth tones up the lowest surfaces, and a pale dust tone across faces that point at the sky.
Step back at arm's length after every few marks and stop the moment the story reads — under-weathered always beats overdone.
If It Goes Wrong
Any chip or streak that goes too far is painted straight back out with the original surface colour — keep the basecoat mix on your palette while weathering and you can edit marks as freely as you make them.
Variations
Rust builds in the same order nature makes it: stipple patches of orange-brown where water would sit, deepen their centres with dark brown, then chip through to bare metal only at the freshest scars.
Pro Tips
Chips happen where the model would physically contact things: edges, corners, flat panels near handles.
Use the sponge technique for random, natural-looking chip patterns.
Layer your weathering: base damage (dark brown) → metal showing through (silver) → rust (orange).
Vehicles get more weathering on the lower hull, tracks, and leading edges.
Common Mistakes
Overdoing it — restraint is key. A few well-placed chips beat uniform damage.
Random placement — weathering should follow logical wear patterns.
Chips that are too large or too uniform in size.
Applying weathering before the base paint job is finished.