What's not shown are the numerous marks on the lower hull.

The overhangs on the sides also need some alteration. There are small notches that need to be trimmed out and the area between the plates need to be removed.

Over the hull there is damage, from small divoted depressions to large tears and blast marks. Too random to be from an Imperial marksman.

I wanted to bring out the detail in the bays so I started with a light pre-shading of dark gray. I then hand brush various parts with a variety of metallic paints to help break up the monochromatic look.

Then I lost my mind and tried for a light dusting of white. Too much. Way too much.

To fix this I went over the white with Tamiya XF-24, Dark gray. I was able to darken up with too bold white while keeping the subtle metallic tones from the hand painting.

Then came the wash experiment. My usual ink wash proved to be too light so I tried something call 'The Detailer Black It Out'. While a bit on the heavy side I think it might work.

The picture to the right shows the different washes.

With the damage done I painted the hull black. My goal was to gently preshade the entire hull first, then apply the detail pieces and touch up from there.

I custom mixed the base color using Tamiya paints. Now there is a reason for the full coating of black. On several of the detail shots of the 5 foot studio model there is evidence of the modelers taking a rotary tool to the painted model, resulting in a divot with a white, black, white ring. I'm hoping to be able to duplicate this.