Weathering: Mildew??

OK, this is a short story that shows you how my modeling experiences typically go. You may find it humorous, or a bit close to home. If you just want to answer my question, skip down to the paragraph break. I received, as a Christmas gift, Revell's 1959 Chevrolet Impala Hardtop 2 'n 1. Because I am not fond of the "lowrider" scene, I immediately decided to build it factory stock, black with red interior, loaded with factory chrome, etc. etc. I heavily detailed it with wiring harness, spark plug wires, battery cables, fuel and brake lines, e-brake cables, seatbelts, and so forth. I painted it with Testors Model Master gloss black enamel and, after it had dried two weeks, polished it with a polishing kit. Then, after hand-building functional replica scissor-type hood hinges from plastic and pins, I test-fitted the hood and discovered that, even after all the fitting of the grille and such, the hood still didn't sit quite right. I decided to fix this by heating the painted, polished hood under a heat lamp and bending it slightly. To make a long story short, I heated it too much and bent it in half. I ordered a new hood from Revell. It never showed. I sent another letter. No response. I finally went out and burned up $20 for a new Impala model, from which I planned to pirate only the hood and battery decal (another thing that messed up on the original). The DAY I BOUGHT THE MODEL, Revell finally sent the hood. After I had opened the model and primed the new hood. :banghead: :banghead: So, I'm cutting my losses ($20 that would've gone towards an F430 Ferrari) and have decided to make a cool, contest-winning diorama. I'll use the new Impala kit (lowrider only, no factory wheels) to make a junkyard car, complete with no wheels and handbuilt hubs/lug bolts, tons of rust, missing parts, oil stains, ripped interior, faded, scratched paint, dented panels, and sitting on concrete blocks. Then, I'll finish the beautiful factory stock car and display them on a board, with a divider between them and a sandy environment for the junkyard car, and a black-and-white tile floor for the nice one. I'll add a nice label ("1959 Impala restoration") to the backboard. Sound cool? Great.

Now, my question, and the reason for this thread. How do I simulate mildew for the junkyard car? I know that I can easily mix up some greenish mildew-colored paint to airbrush lightly over the whole thing, but how will I get those big fuzzy streaks that go straight down from trim and stuff? My airbrush, even at super-low pressure and air flow, will still way overdo this, resulting in what would look like mildew-colored graffitti, not mildew. Brushing, however, would not make it look like fuzzy, grainy mildew. Any suggestions? I'm not too great at weathering, so any help would be much appreciated, regarding things like rust, worn cloth, etc. Thanks, and hope this isn't a big waste-of-space thread like a couple of my others.
Alex

P.S.--I'll show pictures of the completed "nice" Impala when I finish it, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks. The whole diorama, and even progress pics of the junker, will be long in coming. I have too many projects cluttering my workbench right now, as usual.

well, for starters there are lots of ways to make mildew. you could get some rubbing alcohol/water mix (about 1:5 alcohol:water) and flow it with an eye dropper or paint brush where you want the mildue to "grow" then spray at a good distance so the paint more or less just falls onto the wet surface sticking to the water. once the water dries, then hit it with a dull coat, and it's stuck for good.

another way is with artist's pastels, or chalks. basically do the same thing as above, but with a thinned acrylic clear instead of water as the acrylic will be the adheasion. find the green, brown, gray, whatever color you want, and use a fine sand paper and grind off a good little pile of dust, then use a makeup "fluffy" brush (like a finger print brush) dabbing it into the dust. then just shake the dust onto the prepped surface.

this would work well on the interior as well. flow some clear into the pleats and rolls of your interior, then sprinkle black and green dust into that area to achieve a great moldy/mildewy seat, dash, floorboard, whatever.

if you want mossey floor pans and trunk floors, go get some model rail road "grass". be sure to get the finest grain you can get. then apply it like you would flocking material.

oh, and a side note, rail road grass makes great flocking. just apply with what ever color or glue you feel like using (use up that can of green that you never touch) then once it dries, just hit it with a light coat of white, as a base for lighter colors, or just go ahead and spray your black, brown, blue, or darker colors right on top of it. this works great, and it's a HELL of a lot cheaper than buying a bunch of flocking of all different colors. oh and it also has a finer grain, so it doesn't look as much like shag carpet!!!

Thanks, those are great ideas. I'll go all out with this one. :)
Alex