R6: Weathering and upgrades

I have now got to the point were I can start the weathering process.This is the bit that I always look forward to because it creates the character. The ususal acrylic paint comes out and the process starts. I suppose the trick to weathering is to think about how drirt and grime would normally deposit itself on the R6 if it had been in service for 10 years. I am after a general worn and worked look not a massively dirty or battered look. Weathering takes hours to get correct and in the pictures above you can only see one nights work. There will be a few weeks of painting to get it looking perfect but it will be worth it. The funny thing is that after upgrading the drive electrics to 24v the extra torque from the motors has created a few cracks in the feet. Instead of filling, priming and re-painting them to make them look perfect I simply filled them and overpainted the cracks to look like rust and damage. I could have spent hours trying to create this effect, funny how these things happen just when you need them to.
In the first picture you can see the R2D2 computer case mod I made before the R6. It is strange having them standing next to each other, especially looking at the R2D2 and seeing how inaccurate it is. The R6.E1 looks, is, a real Astromech, where as the R2D2 is a model.