painting a predetor

Um, well, try to add some battle-damage and some areas where the paint has chipped off. Also, I find a light drybrush of scorched-brown around the treads makes it look "used" and like it's been driven a bit.

Oh, and here's a pic of my predator to give you an example:

Predator

It would be a help if you told us t he colorscheme you want.

One universal tip, remember to always thin your paint down with water. It goes on smoother, and dries very smooth too. It may take a few more coats, but it's worth it.

For the "machinery metal", you know, the metal that gets all the heavy-duty work, I paint a basecoat of black, and then I drybrush Boltgun Metal over it. Very nice worn metal look, trust me. And then maybe paint the hydraulic pipes and other things like that full Boltgun Metal on top of the drybrushing, so as to add a bit more variety.

i usually paint my space marines with the ultramarine scheme:yes:

If you want to go for a more "realistic" look, here are some ideas:

1. Take a look at the model and look where there would be parts rubbing or hitting - doors, hatches etc and add 'wear' to those areas.
2. To do rusty worn spots, look at the bottom edges to the side armour as a good spot. That area would get bandged up a lot. To paint them, simply paint of a spot of some brown, then go over it with bolt gun metal, but be sure to leave a litte brown around the edges.

I know that there is one guy that goes to my store and he paints his Ultra marine scheme very well. I am pretty sure he starts with a White primer, then paints a base coats of watered down ultra marines blue, untill it creates a nice clean blue. then he takes a tank brush and puts a VERY light drybrush of space wolves grey. then adds effects such as battle scrapes and dirt. now I think you can easily vary the scheme yourself, because not every paint job should be the same. Thats my two cents.

I'd say a good rust effect would be to paint the metal as normal, and then use either brown or orange ink (your preference) on that spot. Use a tiny drop of dish detergent in the ink so that it spreads out more evenly and smoothly.