The Chief Smeg

That is simply jaw dropping!

I'm not surprised that you would consider this your holy grail model, it's stunning! I agree that the original series Battlestars were way better.

Phantom major I have just seen that very technique on a Japanese modelling video on YouTube it looked to give good results

Thanks for your words of encouragement and the tip about the clay washes - hadn't spotted those. Don't expect great shakes from my first build, I reckon my last kit was either a Polaris submarine or an X-Wing around the time ESB was out at the cinema and I very rarely painted anything, then it was just all about the build, now however...

Many thanks for all your help Yeoman, much appreciated. I'll add ump to my list of resources!

I see what you mean about the dust you added to the spare track pieces mounted on the front. I have been looking on YouTube a lot and have watched a number of videos of tanks being weathered by hand using Vallejo acrylics that have been thinned with water first, I may try my hand at that because the technique of wetting the area first looks like it's makes things very controllable. I have no spare kits to practice on, but R2 does come with open and closed panels, so I'll play on the closed one because I would like to pose him with his tools on show. Nice build on that Centurian btw. The airbrush work you mentioned is something I plan for the future - I can at least spray with a real gun so hopefully adapting my technique to an airbrush will not be so difficult (well, that's the plan anyway)

You are not kidding when you say it has changed! Thanks all for your advice, I'll place my order and see him w much of a mess I can make. One final question, I'll be attempting to apply the wash with a fe brush, do I need to add anything underneath it first or do I just g straight onto the model? I'm guessing I'll need something to fix the pigment I add to BB8...

Hi everyone, I have been lurking on here for a while now looking for tips and pointers; so I finally decided to register and ask questions. I am about to return to modelling after a major 35 year hiatus, but having said that, I am really more of a newbie. I used to build airfix kits and add the water slide transfers and that was pretty much it, any painting was done with a cheap brush and humbrol enamels (and not often at that) I more enjoyed the building. Anyway, looking on here has inspired me (especially the work of Andy Moore; I mean WOW). What I do need is advice. I have been bought the bandai 1/12 scale R2 and BB8 kit and I'm wondering where to start with weathering. The kit is still on its sprues so I have yet to make any kind of start, as for materials I have some Sprue cutters, craft knife and diamond files from some of my day job tools (I'm an engineer - mainly in the aircraft and submarines industries; 3 colour smoke pod in the red arrows hawk is some of my work). So, where do I start - I want to build the kits and start to introduce some grime to each droid, bit of dust for bb8 and some oily type grime for R2. Help?