Trying my hand at ageing metal

Assuming that an Ork Big Gun is made up of a mishmash of various metals such as steel, iron, brass, copper and bronze, then in order to age the metals I would have to paint in grime, rust and verdigris. That ageing metal even came into consideration was because I decided to complete the two W40K heavy support Ork units - Ork Bug Guns Lobba and Kannon - after having finished the gretchins for a Hulk skin tone test. As I have no solid experience in ageing metal, I tried it out on the Lobba first.

A very old Ork Big Gun, of the Lobba variety

I love the colour scheme that a combination of rust, grime and verdigris makes

One wonders if this Lobba would blow up if used

In hindsight, after re-looking at natural occurrences of verdigris, I should have painted the effect more evenly on the copper/brass/bronze plate covering the top of the Lobba. I was torn between a good natural covering of verdigris versus letting enough bronze/copper/brass show through the verdigris to make the metal visible without having to closely scrutinise the Lobba. Meanwhile, I tried not to go overboard with the rust and grime as the Lobba is still supposed to be in working condition.

Aged Ork Big Gun (Lobba) - side view, right

Rust is minimal on wheels and steel encasing artillery bore to show Lobba is still in working condition

Aged Ork Big Gun (Lobba) - front view

I went for a combination of rust, grime and verdigris mainly because I simply love how the overall colour scheme looks like, namely the combination of orange, turquoise and brown colours. In my opinion, such a colour scheme gives the metal more 'character' as it were.  

All this Lobba is missing are its gretchin handlers

Aged Ork Big Gun (Lobba) - side view, left

All the effects were painted using a combination of Citadel technical and dry paints which I got purely as an impulse buy when out window shopping in a local mall with the family. As I forgot to take some 'before ageing' photos of the Lobba, I had to compare it to another Ork Big Gun - the Kannon - which is at the 'new metal' stage but soon to be aged as well.

Comparison between aged and new metal

Ork Big Gun on the right - the Kannon- awaits the ageing treatment

It is tempting to leave the Kannon unaged but that would be uncharacteristic of an ork weapon

So next up for these ork heavy support units will be to paint ageing effects on the Kannon. They have proved to be a nice little diversion from my main Game of Thrones and Marvel Universe projects but more importantly the Ork Big Guns have allowed me to practice painting metals. Until my next blog post, thank you for reading, and as always stay well and happy.