The final step is weathering a model. There are as many different ways to do this as there are people who make models. The way I do things for the Star Saga models is the McConnell Way, or my own variation. It’s part ILM, part scale modeler and part my own creation. No way is better or worse it all comes down to personal choice.
Because this ship is in a war and is old, it gets dirtier and there is not time to clean it. So my attempt to weather this one is going to seem extreme to some folks.
I don’t have any pictures of actually doing the black acrylic wash, but you can see that being done all over the internet. My methods are not unique for that. What is different is my application of pastel colors. I use white for lightening some panels and black for darkening them. I also use browns and yellows to indicate rust and add interest for the eye.
I like to streak the wash down on the sides, it’s completely illogical for a spaceship, but it just looks right to our gravity bound experience. On these 1/350 scale massive starships I don’t usually indicate oil leaks as that would break scale. But smudges and streaks are fine as long as you vary it across the model.
You can see some rust stains on the bow in the above image. I also added some tiny antennas all around the ship to replicate the tone of the original sketch which was influences by the Cygnus in The Black Hole.
As always, the final model gets placed on the high garage shelf with all the other completed models. Waiting for the time when I take it down to photograph it for the new Starstrikers cover. Then it will go back up there and sit with the others until I decide how to get rid of them.
If you want more pictures you can use the Google Photos link on the model build home page.
That’s a wrap!