Rust in Peace

[geezerman]

This is how I’m doing it. Maybe it will help or encourage others.
First, I’m basing all of this with Duplicolor sandable red primer.
I have a margarine tub handy full of baking soda and a spoon for applying soda to small areas. I first sprayed a WET coat on the surface I want to rust. Fender tops and cab roof were sprayed from directly above, avoiding getting any on the sides. This will enable a softer transition from the rust area to the non rust area, meaning no hard taped lines. Do one area at a time, this paint flashes fast and the baking soda has to get on before it dries, so dip or sprinkle immediately after getting the wet coat on.
Here, the roof top has been soda'd and resprayed with the primer, but the cowl top and fender tops are just in the coating of soda.


You see where I laid a piece of tape on the edge of the bed rails with a slight overhang. I sprayed straight down on the top edge of the fender avoiding a hard edge and getting paint and soda up next to the bed sides.
I gently used a soft brush to further feather the edges of the baking soda areas, and remove excess soda. When I had it pretty much as I wanted it, I then sprayed another wet coat to the soda to seal it in.
Cab roof shown here.




Next stage is to mask off the areas you want to leave rusty.
This is messy at times because the liquid mask dries quite fast and isn’t very maneuverable.
Also use a cheap or crappy brush, because it will be ruined. I am using a Grumbacher artists liquid mask here. I also have some from Micro Mark.



After a short drying time to be sure the thickest part of the mask has dried, it was time to mix some paint and bite the bullet.


Here’s a close-up of the hood.


Being care full not to touch the paint (I have used a custom mixed color with 1 Shot sign enamel), I peeled off the mask material.


Here are all of the parts waiting now to fully dry. Notice I have areas that have salt crystals still on. That and final touch up and effects will await artistic skills


I'll try to show some of how I blend all of the stuff into a half believable rust job in my next installment.

[geezerman]

Now that the body color paint is dry, it’s time to clean things up and prepare for the detailing.
Here are salt crystals that were painted over, being cleaned off. The exposed Duplicolor primer just needs some highlighting with rust coloring giving beautiful looking automotive cancer. Areas like this are prime locations for major rusting. Rocker panels, PU cab corners, body damage, anywhere panels meet each other are some others. Severeness of rust is completely up to the modeler. Severe cancer is created by roughing the area, drilling or grinding holes, then daubing with a dark brown acrylic color and sprinkling salt and/or baking soda on the wet paint.


A lot of combinations of earth colors can be utilized. These are basically what I use and they are quite reasonably priced at Wal-Mart. These are acrylic and dry flat. I have an assortment. I use steel gray for metal surfaces and Licorice for flat black. The Golden Brown and Coffee Bean shown are all that I am using for this beater truck project.
You can get specialized hobby paints such as this Roof Brown and Rust by Polyquil , but c’mon, half the paint for more than twice the price???


OK, lets address those big soda’d primer areas. A little subtle variation in color to break the monotony can be achieved by flooding the primered area with water (not so it’s running off)………



………and then daubing some of the coffee bean (burnt umber is another nice dark brown) or whatever you like, in strategic places.
The trick is to daub so that the color bleeds out into the surrounding primer. Using thinned weak color is better than a strong brushfull of straight paint.


Moving now to the edges where soda primer patches meet body color.
Use variations of weak to strong thinned color to help define the transition. Again, it’s usually better to wet the primered area first to get a subtle blend. Use stronger color on the edge and with a clean dry brush, drag it straight down across the body color. You can do a lot of experimenting here to get the effect you want, but remember this acrylic will be permanent once it dries. You can even pre wet the body paint where you want subtle rust and not have a hard painted line.


Shown in outside light:


Get an old body and play with these ideas, You may become addicted to rust !!

[mastermodeler]

That is a great tutorial, Clay. NOW I might get the courage up to do something like that.

Alex

[geezerman]

Ta Da

[dogfish7]

Wow! That inspires me. Those are exactly what I needed to see. The techniques involved in rusting out an auto. Really appreciate you shareing with us Clay. Must have taken a while to learn. Practice, practice practice