Decided to tackle the Flash Tube weathering this past weekend. This was actually a much bigger pain in the butt than I originally thought it'd be. I ended up doing it over at least a half a dozen times before I was happy with it, and probably another half dozen minor touch-ups after that LOL.
Tools used were my airbrush, Model Master: Aircraft Interior Black, medium and light grade Scotch-Brite (red & white), and a nice hand sewing leather needle for fine detail work.
The amount of weathering on the tube seems to change drastically over the course of filming, progressively rubbing off to the point where it looks like very little remains by the end of filming, but I decided to go with the early weathering since I think it looks the most natural on the blaster
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The key here was to keep in mind that all the reference photos are taken at a distance, and to be careful while you're up close painting not to add too much paint weathering so that when you stand a few feet back it just all looks like a big black blob mess. Just a very very light dustings of paint will do. That was then followed with the red and white scotch-brite pads respectively to get the core roughed up look, and that was then followed with the leather needle to add any fine nicks and scratches
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Also added the 4th vintage AM plug I had since Andy insisted so much 
Replaced all the photos in Post 1 with current photos of the build too
