Weathering Miniatures: Rust, Chipping, Mud and Battle Damage

Weathering is the deliberate addition of wear — chipped paint, rust streaks, mud on boots, soot around exhausts — to make a model look used rather than freshly manufactured. Done well it makes a tank look like it has fought; done badly it looks like the model was dropped in a puddle.

This guide covers the four main weathering effects and how to produce each, plus the two things that separate convincing weathering from a mess: restraint, and putting the wear where wear actually happens.

Where does wear actually happen?

This is the whole discipline. Weathering applied evenly all over reads as dirt on the model rather than damage to the vehicle. Wear concentrates in predictable places:

• Leading edges and corners — where a plate meets the world. Hatch rims, track guards, the front of a hull, the toe of a boot.
• Places people touch — handles, hatches, steps, the grip of a weapon.
• Bottom-up, for mud and dust — heaviest at the feet and lower hull, fading as it rises.
• Top-down, for rain streaks and rust — starting at bolts, vents and seams and running downwards.
• Around heat — exhausts, muzzle brakes, engine vents get soot and discolouration.

If you place effects in those five zones and nowhere else, weathering looks intentional even when the technique is rough.

How do you paint chipped and scratched paint?

The sponge method is the standard and it takes minutes.

1. Tear a piece of blister-pack foam or coarse sponge into a rough-edged scrap — torn, not cut, so the edge is irregular.
2. Pick a dark brown, almost black, not silver. Real chips show the primer or the metal beneath, which is dark. Silver chips everywhere is the classic beginner tell.
3. Dab the sponge in the paint, then dab most of it off on a towel — the same discipline as drybrushing.
4. Stipple lightly along edges and corners. Build up gradually.
5. Add a few sharper chips with a fine brush in the places you want the eye to go — irregular shapes, never dots or dashes.
6. Optionally, put a tiny bright metallic mark inside the lower edge of the largest chips only. A hint of exposed bare metal in a handful of places sells the effect; everywhere and it looks like glitter.

Restraint check: a well-maintained Imperial tank has a dozen visible chips, not two hundred. An Ork vehicle can have as many as you like.

How do you paint rust?

Rust builds in layers, dark to light, and it wants texture.

1. Start with a dark, textured base. A dedicated corrosion-textured paint, or a dark brown mixed with a little modelling sand.
2. Stipple a mid orange-brown over it with a sponge or the end of a brush, concentrating around bolts, seams and the lower edges.
3. Drybrush a brighter orange-rust lightly over the raised texture.
4. Add streaks running downwards from rust patches with a thinned brown, dragged with a damp brush.
5. Stop. Fresh bright orange rust over the whole model reads as toy-like; rust is mostly dark.

For heavy rust — Ork scrap, abandoned terrain — the same sequence with a real texture medium underneath and pigments over the top.

How do you paint mud and dust?

Mud is placed low and thick; dust is placed everywhere thin.

• Mud: a textured earth or mud technical paint stippled onto boots, lower legs, tracks and wheel arches. Heaviest at the very bottom, fading upward. Add a gloss varnish spot on the thickest patches for a wet look.
• Dust: a very thin, light earth-coloured glaze over the lower half of the model, or a light drybrush of a pale sand tone over the whole thing. Subtle. If you can clearly see where you put it, it is too much.
• Match the base. Mud on the model must be the same colour as the ground on the base. A model with grey rubble on its base and brown mud on its boots has been in two places at once.

How do you paint soot and exhaust staining?

The easiest effect and one of the most convincing on vehicles.

1. Stipple a dark grey-black around the exhaust opening or muzzle.
2. Fade it outward with a very thin black glaze, running upwards from exhausts and backwards from muzzles.
3. Keep the source itself darkest, and let it die out within a couple of centimetres.

How much weathering is right for which army?

Weathering is a characterisation choice as much as a technique, and different factions want very different amounts.

• Death Guard — as much as you like. Rust, corrosion, grime, and a wet gloss finish over the worst of it.
• Orks — heavy chipping, heavy rust, mismatched panels. Weathering is the paint scheme.
• Astra Militarum — moderate: mud on boots and tracks, dust on the lower hull, modest chipping on edges. These are working soldiers with maintenance crews.
• Adeptus Custodes and Grey Knights — almost none. These are ceremonial, immaculate forces, and dirt on them looks like a mistake.
• Necrons — no mud or dust, but pitting and dark corrosion suit the ancient-machine theme.
• Sisters of Battle — light soot and scorching around weapons, otherwise clean.
• Aeldari — clean. The aesthetic is graceful and maintained.

Whatever you choose, keep it consistent across the army. One immaculate tank next to nine filthy ones looks like an unfinished model, not a variety of experiences.

Paints to use

Typhus Corrosion · Citadel Colour Technical

Ryza Rust · Citadel Colour Dry

Stirland Mud · Citadel Colour Technical

Agrax Earthshade · Citadel Colour Shade

'Ardcoat · Citadel Colour Technical

What are the most common weathering mistakes?

• Silver chips everywhere. Chips reveal dark primer far more often than bare metal. Dark brown first, metal only in a few spots.
• Weathering applied evenly all over. Concentrate it in the five zones where wear happens.
• Rust that is too bright and too orange. Real rust is mostly dark brown; the bright orange is a small highlight on top.
• Mud that does not match the base. Pick one environment for the whole army.
• Regular, repeated chip patterns. Dots and dashes read as pattern. Chips are irregular.
• Weathering a faction it does not suit. Grime on Custodes gold undoes the point of Custodes gold.
• No varnish underneath. Weathering is the stage most likely to need undoing; a gloss coat first gives you a layer to wipe back to.

Frequently asked questions

Should I varnish before weathering?

It is a good idea for aggressive effects. A gloss varnish over the finished paint gives you a barrier, so if a rust wash or a mud stipple goes wrong you can remove it without taking your highlights with it.

What is the easiest weathering effect for a beginner?

Sponge chipping on edges with a dark brown, and a dust drybrush along the bottom of the model. Both are fast, forgiving, and immediately effective.

Do I need weathering pigments and oil paints?

No. The acrylic technical range covers rust, mud and corrosion perfectly well for tabletop models. Pigments and oils give finer control and are worth exploring for display vehicles.

How do I make mud look wet?

A spot of gloss varnish on the thickest parts of a dried mud texture. Keep it to the deepest areas — an all-over gloss looks like the model is varnished, not muddy.

Can you weather infantry, or is it just for vehicles?

Both. On infantry it is mostly boots, lower legs, knees and elbows, plus soot at the weapon muzzle. Keep it much lighter than on a tank.

Will weathering hurt the resale or tournament look of my army?

A consistently and tastefully weathered army usually reads as better painted, not worse. What reads badly is inconsistency across the force.

What comes next

Weathering ties a model to its environment, and the environment is the base — the last modelling stage and the one that makes an army look like an army.