I’m going to be modeling the CSX bridge over the ohio river, and I was wondering what you guys find most useful to simulate rust?
I’ll be using plastsitruct beams and channels to fabricate the bridges themselves, and then will probably spray them with 4 parts aluminum to 1 part flat black to get a dingy-silver base color.
Then, some have told me to blend even parts copper metallic to matte brown (camoflage paint for military scale modelers) for the simulated rust, but that comes out too shinny. suggestions?
Pollyscale makes a “rust” that you can buy and dilute in an alcohol wash. You can experiment with the ratios to get the concentration and look that you want.
I’ll say it again - forget paint when it comes to things like that. Learn to use pastel chalks to simulate rust. Paint is always too thick or thin and once it’s on, it’s on. Chalks give very subtle effects and can be wiped off if you don’t like the result. Do a search here on “chalk” and you’ll find lots of information.
One of the best “straight out of the bottle” products I have ever used is a wash called RustAll. You just brush it on, let it settle and dry. You can get it by itself, or as part of a 4 bottle weathering package. A lot of military modelers use it too. Check your LHS or one of the on-line vendors.
I did this bridge with a product called “Instant Rust.”
I got it at Michaels art supply. Dick Blick also carries it, as I recall.
It’s a 2-part package. The first is called “Instant Iron” and is basically a very fine suspension of iron particles. You paint that on, and then the next day you paint the oxidizer on over it. Within a half-hour or so it’s all rusty. You control how rusty things get by how much of the first stuff you put on.
If you are thinking of brushing it on yourself, and have some vials of acrylic artists paints, I would blend three parts Burnt Umber with one part each of Red and Yellow. You can fool around with this, but that basic and general combo should get you quite close…maybe four parts umber.
The crane’s gears are Humbrol #132 Satin Red enamel mixed with Humbrol Matt Black. Rails are acrylic Red Oxide + black + a touch of Forest Green to neutralise the red a bit.
Whether you are using chalks or paints rust is, in esssence, a reddish-brown and its warmth is going to be a matter of perception - yours!!! I will own up to not having ‘created’ a great deal of rust in my modeling but I did on one project and I did that with a chalk set which contained primary colors!
Start, if you will, with brown - equal parts red/blue/yellow - and then start adding red until you get your desired hue; should you desire a more orangish-brown rust then add equal parts red and yellow until you get the hue which suits your fancy. I receded the intensity of my final ‘rust’ hue by toning it down with a measure of about a Value 5 or Value 6 gray. When I had the color I was after I made a very thin paste using isopropyl, brushed it on to my model where I needed the rust, and, while still slightly wet, wiped off the excess leaving a very thin sheen of ‘rust’. I cannot see why paints should create color any differently than chalks but, as I said, I have never tried paints for this particular project.
Let me add one thing: I keep bottles of the primary colors around and do an awful lot of mixing of my own hues; in addition I keep bottles of black and white around for tinting, toneing, and shadeing.
