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Tips for creating battle damage?


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Hey guys,

 

So I'm working on converting some plastic Marines into a Legion of the Damned Squad. I picked up some skull helmets for them from Anvil Industries and my plan for them is that I want to make and paint them to look like spectral/ghost Marines, rather than 'regular' Legion of The Damned (my colour scheme is predominantly blue and pink, so I thought black and fiery Marines would look a bit too jarring). I'm drawing some inspiration from an old White Dwarf 'Chapter Approved' Nemesis Kill Team article where they basically have some ghostly greenish/blue Marines, that is the style I'm trying to emulate. Those were just bog standard Marines though, I want to do a bit of converting on mine so they fit the bill a little better, hence the skull heads.

 

This brings me to my topic; I want my Ghost Marines to look roughed up and battered, but I don't want to go overboard as I'm a complete novice when it comes to stuff that isn't just straight up kitbashing/hand swaps and don't want to get out of my depth too quickly. That said, I'm not really sure how to go about modelling battle damage, the way I'll be painting them means I won't be able to rely on the paint work to convey damage, it'll need to be physically modelled. One of the main things I was thinking was to cleave a big cross/ X shape where each Marine's Chapter icon would normally be, but besides that I was thinking bullet holes and general signs of hack damage.

 

How might I go about achieving something like that? I have a couple of pairs of Citadel clippers, an ancient junior hacksaw and a Citadel hobby drill to work with, should I just start hacking and drilling with those? Is that likely to do a convincing job of it, and is there anything in particular I can do with what I've got?

 

Cheers!

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I did a tutorial on making barricades from leftover blocks of Forge World resin and in there I explained a bit about doing battle damage, if you'd like to take a look:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/273079-urban-barricades-from-forge-world-resin/

 

As well as physically modelling it, doing weathering via sponging (check YouTube for 'weathering with a sponge' and you'll get lots of tutorial videos) will help.

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I did a tutorial on making barricades from leftover blocks of Forge World resin and in there I explained a bit about doing battle damage, if you'd like to take a look:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/273079-urban-barricades-from-forge-world-resin/

 

As well as physically modelling it, doing weathering via sponging (check YouTube for 'weathering with a sponge' and you'll get lots of tutorial videos) will help.

 

Thanks for the swift response, that's really helpful, can see that working on a smaller scale on shoulder/leg segments!

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A word of friendly advice, keep the actual physical gouges and scrapes small and few, as if you make them too big, it will look very unrealistic.

On a completely different and sorta unrelated note, has anyone tried using crackle-effect paints on models? I've only seen them used for bases.

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On a completely different and sorta unrelated note, has anyone tried using crackle-effect paints on models? I've only seen them used for bases.

Are you referring to the Citadel texture paints (like Stirland Mud, Blackfire Earth, etc) or the technique of using non-texture paints to create 3D crackle/texture effects? [Think blues and whites being used to create lightning patterns on Night Lord armor]. I have not done either of these on model, although I have become reasonably decent at using non-texture paints for creating themed bases.

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I tried it with a CSM, not gone well for gaming miniature.

Problem with those crackle paints is, if you touch the minis the paint flakes peel off.

So only ok for display miniatures.

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Hey guys,

 

[...] I'm drawing some inspiration from an old White Dwarf 'Chapter Approved' Nemesis Kill Team article where they basically have some ghostly greenish/blue Marines, that is the style I'm trying to emulate.[...]

 

Hi, have you got a reference for that article ? I'm quite interested in making something similar for my Shadow Wolves.

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Roughed up battle damage can be achieved easily by using the sponge technique. You want to take silver or black paint and a small piece of sponge (best is from blister packs) and just dab it on areas that would be hit or worn, then take another colour (i like a brown for rust) and hit the same spots followed by a black or silver (whichever you did not use already)

 

If it's for legion of the dammed, maybe dab white, silver and a rust to oppose the black

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