Rust techniques

[BombMagnet]

I am new to the ship weathing scene, and am interested in what people have to say about applying rust effects to a ship. I'm just looking to lightly "rust" the ship.

Do people recommend using the "rust effects" from an influential Spanish company, do people just brush on rust-colored paint, or do people use some other technique? Also, specific color and brand names would be very helpful. Some "rust" colors do not appear very realistic.

Your comments and tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Ross MacMillan]

Hi, some people use rust coloured weathering pigments, but I've yet to try it out for myself and am unsure how well it would work for model ships. Might be worth investigating.

[sgtryan13]

I do all my weatehring with artist's oil paints. you thin them down to the desired level and can give teh whole model a wash, or just do spot applications. Basically you need to just play around with them to get an effect and co9lor that is pleasing to you.

I use a combo of siennas, umbers, ochres, and greys for my rust effects. If you buy a starter pack of artists oils, it will have plenty of shades for you to experiment with and choose what you like.

This model here, while extremely rusted, was done with the above technique and colors- http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... /index.htm

[FlowerPower]

For light rust like this...

...I use Vallejo washes (mainly the light rust wash) diluted with LOTS of water....it's so easy to overdo it.

With this result...

The paint chips are done with dark grey paint.

I make sure the rust doesn't become a focal point when you look at the model from a normal viewing distance, because I think that will distract too much.
Like this...

Note: not weathered the hull yet.

Washes are fine for light background colours, but less suitable for dark surfaces.

The dark grey decks I give a dirt wash...a mix of dark grey and umber or sepia....and later on a bit of dry rust pigment applied with cotton swabs, brushes and fingers.

[BombMagnet]

Thanks for the tips...I take it then the point is to greatly thin down the material being used? It seems to me just painting with a rust color would have too great of a contast, i.e. be too noticable.

[DEBVD]

For light rust like this...

...I use Vallejo washes (mainly the light rust wash) diluted with LOTS of water....it's so easy to overdo it.

With this result...

The paint chips are done with dark grey paint.

I make sure the rust doesn't become a focal point when you look at the model from a normal viewing distance, because I think that will distract too much.
Like this...

Note: not weathered the hull yet.

Washes are fine for light background colours, but less suitable for dark surfaces.

The dark grey decks I give a dirt wash...a mix of dark grey and umber or sepia....and later on a bit of dry rust pigment applied with cotton swabs, brushes and fingers.

Nice work

It looks easy...but it will be difficult ti this the first time

[JIM BAUMANN]

have a look here also

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=44446

Cheers

Jim Baumann

[Hallis]

anybody have any preferred pigments or washes they like to use? In the videos i've seen on youtube they seem to be fairly easy and straight forward to apply.

I'd picked up a little .25oz bottle of Testors Rust enamel. But for some reason I think that might not work out well unless i dilute the hell out of it. And then might not get the desired effect ad the paint seems to be a metallic flake (bright shiny flakes) almost like a copper.

[biggles2]

For vertical rust streaking I use artist's tube oils - any reddish-brown color - and apply very tiny dots of paint where I want the rust streak to originate from. Then using a dry and clean brush just brush the dot of paint downward as straight as possible. The streak should fade out to a point. If you mess it up, since it's oil paint, you can just wipe it off and try again.

[wefalck]

On acrylics one can also use washes of acrylics, of course, but you cannot correct this once it is done. The other option on acrylics, which I have used in the past, is water colours (artists' or the cheaper school variety, which are more like guache). Here you can wipe off what you don't like, but you cannot build up layers of rust, as the water colours remain water soluble. However, you can protect each layer with a mist of acrylic varnish.

The above techniques have some disadvantages over using artists' oils, with which you can build up layers of paint, like the old masters, but these oil paints tend to take a long time to dry/oxidise.

wefalck

[Eric Bergerud]

A year back I built the 1/350 AFV I-19 and decided to use it as an exercise in very heavy weathering with a goodly dose of rust. (I built it along with a Type IX Uboat.) Except for a Floquil primer I did I-19 entirely with my own brews made up of Golden and Triart artist acrylics, paints that I really like. The effort received a very chilly response here because - it had too much rust. Actually I don't think I was fighting history with a IJN sub - here's a photo of I-400 while surrendering after VJ Day:


I've looked a lot of photos and I live in a harbor city and see a lot of ships. I admit that in general I'd say ship models are under weathered. That said, if a warship has had moderate duty I'd be thinking much more of streaking and fading than rust - for one thing rust starts when the paint is damaged or worn - salt water will do that and it will fade and streak the ship. Nor would I apply heavy weather on a full hull ship. To my eye, it just doesn't look right. In the real world we don't see ships below the waterline, so I reserve weathering for waterline models - unless its a sub which you do think of sailing around underwater thanks to the movies. (I've only built two full hull ships and both were very moderately weathered: I'd do less if doing them again.) If, however, you're modeling a ship that's been in a lot of action, rust is certainly part of the equation - perhaps even a large one.

The key to rust is to think of it as a kind of process. If you want heavy rust it must vary in color. I would fade any general area that's getting serious rust. Then would come on a blotch of a very light color - something almost pink. If doing heavy rust you want it to get increasingly darker - ending with something like sepia. If you want rust streaks that will draw attention make some kind of chip with a dark acrylic and have the rust streak come down from it. There are lots of rust colored paints acrylic or enamel. There are also dedicated rust weathering brews put out by companies like MIG, or AK that cater to the armor crowd. They work. If you want some serious rust spots use some baking powder and pigments to give the stain a kind of 3D effect. You can also pick the pocket of the rust meisters found in the model railroad fraternity. They're very good at it and I use their techniques now. One "oldie but goodie" is the Rustall weathering system. It comes in four bottles - one is liquid rust (the real stuff - hard to beat it) that's very light and needs several coats to darken. (Also comes with a dye that serves as an all purpose pin wash, some extremely fine sand that I use for armor, and a bottle of water containing mica fragments that give a fascinating blotchy matte effect when used.) My favorite is Iwata Com.Art which is used by airbrush craftspeople doing almost anything but models. These are coarse acrylics and come in dozens of colors both opaque and transparent. You want transparent. There are three shades of rust, although light and dark are enough. It does not adhere well to plastic - which is what makes it great for weathering. It leaves a kind of blotchy surface which perfect for showing indistinct grime and wear. The stuff is also very forgiving: you can take it off the next day with some warm water. The I-19 below was rusted with acrylic rust colors, enamel streaks and rust pigments to give it body. I did a 1/700 Shigure that was weathered with Com.Art. If you want to get into this stuff seriously track down some of the DVDs or books by the armor gurus Mig Jimenez or Adam Wilder. Pics from yours truly below:
Eric

[NukeMM]

For this light rust affect, I used colored pencils and pastel chalk. It show up well atop the white paint finish; it may not look so obvious on a gray or darker colored ship. Just a sprinkle of the chalk, blow most of it off, and rub the remaining dust into the paint (before any clear coat).

[Eric Bergerud]

Nuke

Looks good. I use pencils more now than ever and really like them. What did you use for snow? I've thought about an arctic convoy escort and I certainly will want good techniques for armor.

Eric

[NukeMM]

Nuke

Looks good. I use pencils more now than ever and really like them. What did you use for snow? I've thought about an arctic convoy escort and I certainly will want good techniques for armor.

Eric

Eric,

I used Granulated Alum found in the spice aisle of the grocery store.

See my How-To on the Ice Floe, here.........

http://www.back-aft.com/uploads/Carl_Mu ... iorama.pdf