In this first part on how to paint raw metal I'll be starting with rusty metal plates.  For this I simply glued 3 pieces of .30 styrene to simulate the plates. The first step is to prime the the plastic then this is followed by a dark brown in preparation for the weathering to follow.

The first step is to mix up some washes in different dark tones. For this I used W&N Vandyke Brown, 502 Abteilung oils in Light Rust Brown and Shadow Brown.




I started out with the darkest color first, being sure the wash was nice and thick.




Before the Oil wash dried I stippled on some Pigments. I started with MIG Productions Track Brown. I find this color works best for metal that has been sitting out doors for a long period of time, and also for corroded metal.




Once the Oil wash and Pigments had dried, with the help of the trusty old hair dryer, A coat of MIG Pigment Fixer was spray on with the air brush. This will help seal in the Pigments that will give the metal some texture.




Next came the 502 oil, Light Rust Brown. I used the sponge technique to randomly apply the oil paint. This can also be done with enamel or acrylic paints. I chose the oils simply because I wanted to experiment with the 502 oils.




I then placed dabs of various oil paints on my make shift palatte. These are ordinary oils in umber tones. This will be used for the light rusting.




Using the same sponge technique as before, I started sponging on the oils starting with darker colors.




The lighter colors come last and look something like this.




I then removed the tape and found that the oil wash and oils had seeped under the tape. This will work to my advantage since I will be adding bright rust to these areas.

I repeated the process for the other plates using the same oils and washes. I then dried the plates with the hair dryer and then went back with a damped large paint brush and slowly blended the oils. I then applied a coat of clear flat to seal the oils.




Once the oil paints dried for a couple of days it was time to use some dry Pigments on the plates. I use a stiff haired brush to apply the Pigments, then switched to a larger softer brush to blend the various rust tones.

On the vertical plate I used the stiff brush to streak the rust down. Where the plates meet I used bright rust, this area is where the rain water will collect and form the fresh rust.

The final weathering was done with dust color Pigments from MIG Productions.













The fuel drum was done using the Hairspray Technique and some oil washes mixed with rust.

This type of rusted plate is quick and easy to do, and is perfect for a diorama setting.


Rob