hay there all , need a quick and dirty recipe too make this silver plate bridge look weathered for pacific north west wash,Idaho area 1960 its been painted silver & a coat a dull coat (the silver I used was a gloss)
I have a airbrush ,some aim pastels,Joe’s weathering paints (waterbased washes ) ,enough poly scales to be dangerous,a couple a oil artist tubes for rusting affects ,but need a quick recipe to get it going .example; would one air brush a thinned rust or grimy black all over to start with and then maybe some heavy rusting around the rivets and such ?
really need the FIRST step,the all over the misting that says weathered…any Ideas ? I no, you’d think with all the products I have I’d know something…Jerry
If you’re not determined to keep them silver, I’d spray 'em out with flat black and then airbrush thinned down rust color to the areas you want to highlight. Even a can of cheap flat black from the hardware store will do fine for the base coat. With quick drying paints the whole thing can be done in an hour or less.
Jerr if it was me I would find a proto picture of something close to what you had in mind. Even if it was a couple of pics - I like the grim in this one and the rust in this one but the coloring that one. This would give us a better idea of your mental picture
Assuming you want the bridge to be silver in the first place (and you didn’t indicate otherwise), there are multiple ways to weather it. I usually start with a wash of acrylic or enamel for rust, and try to let it accumulate around rivet seams, especially along the bottom of the bridge. I will also apply some pastel dust or other powdered pigment for additional rust, grime and such, followed by some airbrushing of the final weathering, especially dust. Find some prototype photos and match the effects accordingly. You may want to skip one or more of the above depending on how the real bridge looks.
it was black ,but I like the look of a heavy weathered silver ,everybody,s got a black one & Im useing black bridges ealsewhere, [swg]
prototype ,oops Ive got 4 prototypes operateing here so chances are 1 of them used Silver at some time or someplace . But if I had to say prototype it would be G.N. with a hint a N.P. and a splash a S.P.&S with an chance of a W.P. from time to time ,hey mabe the highline from oregon to beiber ,ca I think the W.P. used silver …Jerry
Wow , some good Idea’s Love the site with all the picts & and micheal ,I love that bridge and I want the same look only in silver as the original color ,the wash Idea sounds like a good start point ,wish I could find a pict its in my head just cant remember where I seen it [banghead]
Nice pictures…was anyone else struck by the picture in the third row? It looks like a gutted heavyweight passenger car being used as a covered walkway bridge over a stream? Now I think that’s interesting.
Way too many things to model in this world and way too little time…and Merry Christmas to you, too!
Jerry, I really like that silver look showing through myself and used it on some end-of-track blocks. I might recommend you think about the real-life process, then follow accordingly. What I mean is this: spray paint the bridges a shiny silver like they just came from the “factory,” then dull them down with some gray in as many places as you like (while leaving as much or as little of the silver showing as you want) because the silver starts losing its shine when it’s outside for a while, use something like india ink wash to add relief and get the places dirty where they would be collecting dirt and grime, then add rust using some light browns and oxide reds in the places that might rust first and the fastest.
Once the original silver spray paint dries, the rest goes pretty quickly.
Jerry, I’d start with a red primer color, and using a make up sponge, lightly dry dab the red on the sides to simulate the primer bleeding through the silver. Remember lightly! Do the same color on some areas with a fine brush, dry brushing, almost no paint, to get some streaks vertically. Repeat with a rust color, depending on how old you want the rust, personally I’d use brown.A little more on the bottom edge were water would collect.
Then using a watered down dark gray, airbrush the whole thing to bring out rivit details and tone down silver some more. When that’s dry another shot of dull coat to kill all shine, then use dusting powders and add some more fading and rust streaks. Do each step lightly, you can always add more. Good luck. mh
well my first go before I got the last couple a post ,thanks for the info bye the way. Any way kinda captured the look thats in my head ,but the results are missing something but its close ,well mess with some hand work later this was just a “got out a hand” air brush session ,I love playing with new toys[;)]
after
before
another view
thanks …oh ,the funny looking circles ,as my wife calls em ,are suppose to be faded panels with rust closing in at least thats the way I see it in my head …Jerry
That looks really good JERR. But the circles don’t blend. Maybe use the powders to try to blend them a little more with the rest of the weathered color, which by the way looks real good.
thanks Michael;but today Im going to pick up some make-up sponge"s and take the advise posted earlier (hopefully I can better blend in or blend out those circles).I watched ALL of the Cody’s tips on weathering video’s here, And I’m filled with “I can do this” attitude . I’ve been rushing this so I can get the track back in to run a couple a trains for the grandson tommorrow, always a mistake(rushing that is) …thanks again
Oh and Michael ,I seen you landform work around your bridge picture ,and its really looking great !
I wanted the rust to be “extreme,” to highlight the difference that the paint crew was making. For this, I painted that part of the bridge with rust-red acrylic and then used Instant Rust, a craft-store product which is an emulsion of very fine iron filings which you paint on, and then a chemical oxidizer that rusts it up nicely.
I don’t have a bridge to show, but this is the much more subtle look I get from AIM powders:
Quick and dirty? I learned some time ago to avoid “quick” techniques, or at least look on them critically. I enjoy model-building anyway, so it doesn’t bother me to take as much time as I need to get the results I want. Those guys on the bridge don’t seem to have made much more progress in the last five years, but the work they’ve gotten done is really excellent.
