Dave
This was supposed to be a very quick, very cheap build for my twelve year old grand son. I bought a very cheap vac-formed hull and to be honest there were a fair number of dents etc in it. I really did not have the time or inclination to keep filling and smoothing so decided in the end to fill the worst and treat the dents as hard work scars and also weather it to make it look a little run down. These toshers had a very hard life in the London Dock system, pushing their way through lighters etc and rarely looked pristine for long. I therefore created a few more scars of various colours with the end of a cocktail stick to make it look as tho she had rubbed along the sides of lighters etc and when dry faded them out a little with some very fine wet and dry. I then airbrushed Humbrol acrylic rust paint over it in various places and some emerald green along the waterline. [First time i have ever used an air-brush in my life. I had searched for a decent book about airbrushing and in the end settled on one that was aimed at Railway Modellers but it proved extremly useful.] Anway when all was dry i airbrushed a coat of ronseal matt varnish with a couple of drops of black in it all over. When finished I thought it looked a bit garish but it seemed to tone down as it dried. I am quite pleased with the end result, it has provoked some good comments from the club members and I am not sure if grandson will get to keep it after all!!!
PS 'er indoors' knitted the fenders out of green garden string which were then dunked in hot bleachy water and then 'distressed' with a wire brush.