The information contained in this message was contributed by individuals, who, unless otherwise indicated, speak only for themselves and not the institutions or buisnesses they are associated with. This material should be considered copyright by the author.
Commercial use requires explicit permission of the author.
Various techniques exist to simulate dirt, fading, spills, paint wear and tear, rusting, etc. The result is extremely different shadows, contrast, etc, that spoil the illusion the model is trying to create. I was disappointed to find that I hadn't saved many of the recent posts on weathering and detail painting. So, I tried to pull the basics out of my somewhat leaky memory in order to put this section together. I can describe the way I do it on my aircraft kits.