Rust

How do you make rust look real? I was thinking about possibly making a field display, with a old ass car sitting... gutted... but I have no idea how to make rust, and give it that "eaten" look. how do you guys do it?


:twak:

Rust is easy, just buy some rust paint! For example, look at this exhaust system I did using Floquil "rust" color, sold through their railroad paint line...
http://images3.fotki.com/v33/photos/4/43509/330872/P7200036-vi.jpg
All I did was airbrush rust onto the bare plastic. After that was dry I did a light black wash followed with a gray wash. Then when that dried I did a light drybrushing of silver to simulate ground scrapes.

For the body I sprayed Silver, then rust, then covered the whole thing in "grimy black" (also Floquil). Depending on how hard I scraped with an xacto knife or sanded with sandpaper it would expose the rust or "metal". Some parts I would dig out with a blade, dab some superglue and baking soda on it for texture then brush with rust paint. The baking soda gives it that cobbly rusty texture. If you want a thin rusted section, grind from the inside with a Dremel or something similar.

Rust isn't everything, though. You need to do the whole package for a convincing look. This model was done with rust, black, grimy black, mud, dust, grime and I forget what else. The seats and top part of the car was given a light white drybrushing to simulate that sunbleached look. The corners that would normally see wear were sanded, drybrushed, and show slightly more rust if made of metal. The parts exposed to the road were sprayed with grime, mud, and dust at very low pressures so they look "splattered" on rather than airbrushed on.

Here's the rest of the model.
http://public.fotki.com/lauron/rons/model_cars/model_projects/1932_ford_phaeton/

Get a set of Floquil's "railroad weathering system" which comes with a bunch of weathering colors then experiment away. My '32 for example was my first ever weathering experiment and the paints make it easy. Just remember not to overdo anything; subtlety is best when weathering.

floquil colors are some of the very best. much better than tamiya,

If you want to give your rust some texture you can coat the piece in some fine grit. (i.e. baking soda)

Floquil stuff smells horrible. If you don't own a respirator yet I suggest buying one before airbrushing Floquil.

Before painting you can use a dremel tool and grind away the plastic from the inside of the body until its really thin and then poke it out or in or whatever to make it look like a rusted out part.

Find an old rusty thing in your yard (I use an old railroad spike) and scrape some rust dust onto a peice of paper. Then, after painting the "rusty" object with your rust colored paint, sift the real rust onto the part. Kind of like flocking. You can even take bigger flakes and attach them with paint or CA to look really worn, but I've never seen that done convincingly. Done this only a few times myself, and on RR models, but I've seen it alot on cars, and it looks great. Kind of the same vein as the baking powder, but with real rust, if you want o be hardcore.

As for the rust, I use the Gunze Weathering Color Set. It comes in a box of six paints: Mud, oil, soot, RUST, rough gray and rough sand. The rust colour is quite good and when applied using brush (it has to be applied using paint brush) it gives the kit the rusty look and even the rust flakes. To make the holes on the car I use dremel and grind the plastic from the inside until it's thin (like what Dag65 said) and poke the holes using the panel scriber. This is something you can add for the models... dents, I make this by heating the parts of the kit (where the dent should be) and push it in using eraser corners (other things except your finger... :icon16: ) to create the dents and it comes out quite realistic. :bigthumb: