Very intresting post !
I did some modelpainting in my younger days (not so long ago)
So this should be an easy fix for some of the daggers I own.
i would like to add some extra information on the modelpainting techniques that can be used to darken or even lighten (if your restoration comes out to dark) some of your motos.
Some techniques used in modelpainting are :
washing and dry-brushing.
Washes:
A wash is a thin paint that washes into the nooks and crannies on the model (in addition to tinting the flat areas) and it can add a dramatic depth to miniatures.
The bad news is that after all that care you took to get a good finish at the previous stage, the application of washes is likely to make it look awful and it's only after the later dry brushing stage that the results really start to shine though. Getting used to the results of the washing stage and knowing when to stop is a matter of experience I'm afraid.
Prepare the wash by thinning the paint with something like 2 parts thinner to 1 part paint. Use a brush to 'flow' this onto the model. Hold model such that the surface that you're working on is horizontal so that you can control how the wash flows.
Let the wash dry and remember that you can always add a second or third coat of wash if the first was too light so err on the side of caution.
When trying to decide on a wash colour for the purpose of enhancing shadows, start by deciding if the base colour is 'warm', like red and yellow, or 'cool', like green and blue. Dark brown makes a good wash for warm colours while black does a good job on cooler colours. For cool colours, you can also use darker shades of the base colour. This usually does not work as well for warm colours.
Another use for washes is to simulate the effects of mud and other gunge which builds up in crevices and in this case you need to choose a colour that best matches your gunge of choice.
Dry Brushing
What washes do for the crevices, dry brushing does for the raised areas. It has two main purposes. The first is to create highlights to counteract the shadows and the second is to simulate wear and tear, as it's the raised areas that always suffer most.
The technique is fairly simple: take an old brush (because this is harsh treatment for a brush and if the brush you use isn't considered old, it soon will be) and dip it into the paint. Now wipe the brush across a piece of kitchen paper until only a faint line of paint comes off the brush. Now gently brush across an edge or high point of the model. This process is repeated to build up the highlights as required.
The trick is to dry the brush quite well on the paper. You can always add more paint to the model and only a very small amount of paint is needed to get the required effect.
For highlights it is best to use white paint or white tinted with a hint of the colour over which you will be dry brushing. For simulating wear you need to think in terms of what colour would show through. On a vehicle this may well be the silver colour of the metal. Bear in mind that damage in a non-wear intensive location will then tend to rust while in a high wear area the constant wear will keep the metal clean.
do some googling and you will find some nice examples of painted models.
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/howto/wash.htm
