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Rust Tuorial

Everybody has their favourite way of creating a rust effect and one of my favourites I learned years ago from one of Brett's kits. I still consider the most important learning tool for fine scale modeling is one of Brett's instruction manuals. Building his kits I've learned dozens of invaluable techniques. This is a weird one and it is so simple and the effect so striking I'm not sure why it os not more popular.

First a coat of flat black paint.IMG_5321
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Then I use 70822 - Vallejo Model Color German Camo Black Brown and water it down a bit and slop on a coat. usually I just dip the soft brush in the paint then dip the tip[ into clean water and brush it on. I have tried many "chipping" colours in the past but this by far is the best as an undercoat for chipped paint on metal or for this effect.
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I let this dry for at least 10 minutes.
Now onto the magic. I use Water Mixable oil paint Burnt Umber which is a nice dark brown.IMG_5327
I wear gloves at this point to avoid some mess and more importantly fingerprints
Just a small amt works for multiple casting. I use a small 1-0 or 2-0 brush. An old one is best - this one cost 50 cents when it was new two years ago. I dab on the oil paint (not brushed just dabbed on corners and seams and random spots) I typically cover 5-10% of the surface, sometimes less.
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Now I pick up my special tool for applying chalk. The worst brush I can find in my collection:
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I dip this in various shades of chalk scrapings and blot it all over the surface. I typically start with the darker shades and then only a spot or two of each of the lighter shades.

My go to dark shades are409.5 411.5 and my fave is 370.3
Light shades are 411.7 and 231.5


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Now the hardest part of this technique - you have to leave these to dry for a few days before touching them. i usually leave them for a week to make sure. This is really annoying when I rust up some styrene strips and find I need an extra to complete a model (see my Sand Car build) but I like the effect and have enough projects on the go.

Most of the time I just dust off the excess chalk after the oil paint dries. Some times I dust on a bit of dullcote for a mottled effect. If I decide to do this I place the casting on the ground and then keeping the spray can around 6' (yes that's six feet) above the casting I spray for a 1 second burst and then wait for the dullcoat to settle on the casting. I repeat 3-4 times per side until I get the effect I want. If you spray it directly on the casting it dissolves the chalk and washes most of the effect away.

Comments

  • Great tutorial Joel, and a fantastic result.
    Thanks for sharing.
  • Thank you Joel! Very good information. Really provides a great effect.
  • Wonderful tutorial Joel. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
  • Nice tutorial Joel! Great way to get that 3 dimensional scaly, bubbled rust effects.
  • This is great help/advice, Joel. Love the effect you achieve so thanks for sharing how you do it.
  • Wow, great technique, Joel. Thanks for showing!
  • Great sbs…thanks, buddy
    terry
  • Impressive!
  • Thanks for that Joel. One can always learn !!! :wink:
  • Thanks everyone - really no problem. I can't take credit for the technique - Brett taught it to me I'm just illustrating it and giving more specific colours to use. Enjoy!
  • nice!
  • Very nice. Thanks for sharing.
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