Getting Down and Dirty

So I thought I'd give a go at weathering up my two desert birds with some exhaust soot and general grime.  First time I've really done this so not that sure of the results, especially after taking so much care on the other bits to then muck them up - seems a bit of a shame in a way.

Not sure if I've gone a bit OTT to be honest, especially on the underside, the watered down paint seemed to dry far faster than I would have expected.  So I took a few snaps before hitting them both with a coat of Klear as a protective layer, then they'll get a flat coat.

Too much exhaust smoke?

Perhaps look better from a distance.

There was some serious scrubbing to clean off the worst of the
black wash from the underside, the Tomahawk looks particularly grimy.

I managed to use the good colour printer at work to print out an A3 desert scene as a back drop for my final finished project photos.  So I had a few minutes to spare so thought I would try a couple of test shots to see how they came out.

Definitely need better lighting to eliminate the shadows falling where they do, and perhaps to get the background a little more level would help.  I know the sandpaper isn't the same as the background but it was just a quick test.