WEATHERING THE PULSE RIFLE

Weathering the Pulse Rifle to look used and battle-worn is basically a task of adding realistic-looking scratches, revealing supposed metalwork underneath the paint. This involved a combination of dry-brushing silver paint over select areas, using a silver gel pen for fine lines and scratches, and a silver marker pen for larger areas of paint that have chipped away.

I gave the SPAS cage and the receiver area a thorough dry-brush in silver; this is a process of taking some silver paint on a paintbrush, removing most of the paint from the bristles onto some scrap paper, and then gently brushing it over areas for the paint to catch. It provides a very convincing gun-metal-like sheen to what was the spray-painted satin black finish. I was more heavy-handed with the dry-brushing around areas that would receive more wear and tear than other parts, such as around the trigger, stock, and where the pump-action grip would scratch the SPAS cage when being used. These areas were further enhanced with faint lines using the gel pen to simulate silver score-lines from repeated use.

Before weathering the NATO Olive shroud I gave it a rub-down with a piece of paper, to add a slight satin-quality to the surface, as it was a VERY matte finish (too much for my liking). I then went about the same process of adding dry-brushed silver paint, scratch lines and silver chip-marks to areas that would likely receive the most impact damage (corners, etc). This process was repeated for the barrel and vent housing and all other parts that were supposed to be constructed out of metal.

This was the (almost) finished result: