A long time ago at a Hobby Weekend far far away…

And with that my walkers were finally finished!

Once the Walker was glued back together it was almost finished.

I just needed to match the feet back into the base, using my tried and tested formula of Armageddon Dust, Agrax Wash and a Screaming Skull drybrush.

With the pin wash and weathering complete I decided to use some weathering powder around the feet in order to add a layer of collected dust. For this I used Secret Weapon Dark Yellow, applied with a large, course brush.

With this done I gave the whole model a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish. This would remove the gloss and seal the model mates and weathering powder in place.

Spring turned to summer and eventually I found the time to pin wash the Walker. It immediately became obvious that accessing the areas below the head would be impossible so I ‘deconstructed’ a little further and removed the head, along with the weapons.

With the head out of the way I followed the same process I had used on the downed walker. This meant spraying with gloss varnish and then going back to the Mig Ammo pin wash. I started working around the legs and chassis….

… and then continued onto the head and weapons. It has to be said that the head was a piece of cake compared to the legs, which required a lot of surface work!

Leaving the head off for the time being, I broke out the Modelmates that I had employed on the downed Walker. I wasn’t intending to do anything like the amount of breakdown I had done to the wrecked version, but felt a little rust here and there would break up the greyness.

Using the Modelmates I added some small areas of rust around any bolts or grills that looked susceptible to weather damage. Oil streaks and stains were then added anywhere you might get leaking fluids!

Moving on to the operational Walker, I was surprised at how little variation I had put into the paint job. I had clearly chickened out of doing something bolder. I only had one person to blame, and that was John. He should’ve pushed me harder!

I definitely needed to do more than just lighten the grey with the airbrush. I had planned to mask the base with cling film but in the end it was easier to just flex the plastic until the base and feet separated. With the base out of the way I went back over the Walker with the original dark colours I had used – Corvus Black and Dawnstone.

This was an immediate improvement but as originally planned, I now needed to bring the grey up to a lighter finish. As with the downed Walker, this was was achieved with Vallejo Air – light grey

In the end I decided to knocked the white spots back in the head section. I also added a wash to the rocks on the base, which was now looking a little bright against the Walker. For this I used Soft Tone in some places and Medium Brown in others, as I wanted to break up the evenness. The final step was to apply a coat of Vallejo Mat Varnish through the airbrush.

After my initial test and gaining confidence in the technique, I worked across the rest of the model. I found switching to a finer brush helped me to get the oils into the deeper recesses and avoid too much overpainting.

Here is the end result of the pin washing.

The model still needed mat coating but before I did that I wanted to add some rust spots and oil staining. For this I would be using Modelmates Rust Effect, Rusty Red and Oil Brown. These technical paints really are magical!

Once again I started with a small test area but soon got carried away!

I found that some areas of the Rust Effect would dry too pale for my liking but by applying the Rusty Red or Oil brown over the top, I was able to adjust the colour and even blend from light rust spots to deeper tones. It’s worth noting that while the modelmates do dry, they become active again with water. This allows you to adjust the distribution of the paint very easily.

I aimed to apply rust to any areas that had suffered severe damage or buckling, as I reasoned that this would be where the surface would have been stripped away and the metal compromised. I also target areas where rain water might pool, as well as smaller and thinner components – bolts, clips, grills and vents.

By the time I’d finished applying the rust, this Walker really looked like it had seen its last battle! I feel the rust spots in the dented head section may still be too light. I’m gonna live with it for a while then decided if I should knock it back….

There are quite a few Oil Brusher sets to choose from but what attracted me to this one was the colour ‘Starship Bay Sludge’ – This seemed like the obvious choice for grubbing up my walkers.

My understanding of this technique is that you thin the Oil Paint quite heavily in order to allow the capillary action to draw the paint into the recesses. This is why it is beneficial to gloss the model, allowing for a better paint flow. I had picked up some low oder thinners for this purpose and used the brush from the bottle to mix a small amount on an old pallet. 

I picked a small area of the model to work on and applied the thinned oil paint carefully, but not too preciously, as the next step of the process would involve removing the excess.

I left the paint for about 15-20 mins before removing the excess with a an old stiff brush and a little thinners. I also found a piece of sponge worked well for passing over the larger areas.

I was surprised by how much control I had of the paint and was able to move the colour around, as well as remove or streak it. I decided to test a bigger area and so worked down the leg. Here you can see my initial application and then after clean up. Pretty happy with the result but I feel that too much paint has been removed from some places. I think I need to leave it longer to dry before removal.