Tyson's rust tutorial

[Tyson]

I've had a lot of people inquire as to how I do my rust. One of those people was arnd. On The Truckstop forum he asked, and I was a bit flattered, since it was one of his trucks (his single axle WWS) that I initially saw and said to myself, "I want my rust to look as good as his."

Well, here's the beginning of my (long) process. This is the base rust coat.

Here are the paints I'll be using for the first step.



I work almost exclusively with acrylics. They're extremely easy to work with, and the colours are always a bit matte, even the "glossy" colours, which is a plus for a dirty truck.

Top to bottom, left to right:
Matte Black
Rust
Gaillo (sort of a tan yellow)
Matte Yellow
Light Blue
Light Rust
Matte Orange
Matte Red
Matte Pale Blue

You don't have to use these exact colours, but something close is needed.

First thing's first. Anything you want rusted should get a nice coat of Matte Black.



The next part (I forgot to take a picture of this step) is spraying a bit of Rust over the black. You don't want full coverage. You want to leave crevices, dips etc. with a bit of black. Basically, where ever you spray you want the outer edges left with a bit of black. On the big surfaces you can spray a bit heavier in spots to show more wear. Don't get too heavy handed with it, but you do want some variation.

The next step is dabbing. You'll want a couple of sponges. I use a standard dish sponge and one of the sponge brushes used for painting edges and corners in houses. Rip off a bit of both so you have uneven edges. The more non-uniform the better. You can have as many bits of sponge as you like. The more pieces you have the less uniform it will end up. If you want you can regularly switch sponge pieces thoughout the process. You'll also want a paper towel or something similar to dab excess paint onto.



Take the remaining paints and put them in separate pools on your palette. Add just a dab of water to each colour. You want them to be thinned and a bit runny. Not too thin, but definitely thinned. It's okay if the colours run together in the middle. That's what we want because we'll be using that later.



Now, take your sponge and dip it in your first colour. Doesn't matter which colour you start with or in which order you progress. Dab the excess paint onto your paper towel. You want almost no paint on the sponge. It's sort of like dry brushing. Now just dab in random places. You don't have to cover the whole piece in every colour. Just remember that you want it to be as random as possible.

Here's what it looks like with my first colour (the tan looking yellow).



As you can see, it looks bright. Not to worry. It'll all come together in the end. The colours will all look bright and "wrong" as you're applying them, but don't fret. One thing I have to say, though, is go easy only the blues. That's one colour you want to use sparingly. You'll want to space them out a bit more. These colours are there to represent oxidized rust. You can go a bit heavier if you want more oxidization, but, as a base, I usually go a bit lighter. It's up to you to choose how to implement this though.

The following are pictures, each with one more of my colours added.













Now that all the colours have been applied, it's time to put that soppy, watery mess in the middle to use. Use your other sponge, and tap it into the soup. Now give it a little tap on your paper towel, and tap the nastiness on your parts. You basically want a nice layer of dirty, murky water covering your pieces. Now take a piece of dry sponge, and go over your parts gently dabbing them dry. You still want a bit of the wetness, but you don't want them sopping wet. What this does is dampen those sharp bright reds, blues and yellows.





That's what I consider my first step. The "base" rust coat.

Following this I'll add how to paint over this and get your rust thoughs.

[camaro73]

Great tutorial! Thank you for posting this.

[gator]

Tyson,
Very interesting. Thanks for posting this!



Be Well
Gator

[ap40rocktruck]

Well done Tyson!

This has been a needed process to share.

Ap40

[tufftin]

I haven't tried weathering yet but I love this tutorial.
Thanks
Mike

[Tyson]

The key ingredients for the next step.



An airbrush is a must, but you will need both salt and hairspray.

For the salt I use several different varieties. Again, variation is the most important word of the tutorial. I use a combination of salt flakes and a rock salt I grind with a grinder. You can also use straight table salt if you want. I generally use the flakes for pieces with more area to cover (cabs, hoods etc.), so I'm not using it here.

For the hair spray I use the pump bottle. I find it easier to use, because I can just unscrew the top and pour it into my airbrush cup. You can use the aerosol and spray it into the cup or just use the aerosol itself to apply it to the parts, but you get much more control with the airbrush.

That said, lets get into it.

Load up your airbrush with hairspray, get your salt ready and lay your parts out. I usually grind a bit of salt directly onto a plate and have a small pile ready.

You'll want to do this piece by piece, because the hairspray dries pretty quickly. Give your first part a good, wet coat of hairspray. Now before it has a chance to dry coat it with salt. This part of the process is strictly up to you. If you want a lot of rust to show use a lot of salt. If you want a little, use a little.

For my fenders I lightly showered the parts with the salt. Then in certain spots I either dipped the part into my salt pile or a took a good pinch of salt and tossed it directly into certain spots. Just like anything, a good bit of reference photos will help you achieve the effect you want. Once you have your salt applied, set the piece aside to dry, and move on to the next piece.

Your pieces should look somewhat like this when you're done.



Once everything is dry it's time for the next step. Since I wanted a bit of clean steel still showing to show that the fenders are a bit younger being they were added on later I have an extra step here, but the process is exactly the same.

Load up your airbrush with whatever colour you want. Now just give the parts a coat as usual. You might want to turn your air pressure down to keep from blowing your salt off. Some will inevitably come off, but don't worry too much.

Once you're done it's drying time again.



Once they're nice and dry you'll need a rough bristle brush. Not too hard, but kinda tough. You'll also need a glass of water.

Again, easier to do one piece at a time. Dip your brush into your water and dab your pieces wet. Here's the reason we used salt. Water dissolves the salt, and makes it easier to scrape off, because the salt naturally releases from the hairspray. With your wet brush brush/scrape the salt off. You'll have to give it a nice rince every now and then to get any excess, loose salt off. don't be afraid to get a little rough. Some of the salt can really hold on. However, don't get TOO heavy handed, because you can still scrape the base rust coat off.

When you're done you should have something similar to this.



This was for bare metal to rust. If you're doing, say, paint over your rust you'll also want to have a hard bristle tooth brush or tooth picks. This is where the hairspray comes in to play again. The hairspray keeps the paint from sticking, so you can practically peel it off if you get it wet enough. Keep your parts damp, and lightly scratch the paint away from areas that would normally lose paint. Again, reference photos help.

You can do this as many times as you want. Just hairspray, salt, , paint, remove salt, repeat. Once you're done, a matte clear coat holds everything in place.

This is what I'm looking at after two layers. Still have a little touching up to do, but that's essentially how I do it.

[ewaskew]

Thats looking real good.
Basic weathering is a nice touch of detailing a model,however its not as simple as some think it is.
And this is more than basic.
These tips sure do help anyone that wants to do it,thanks for showing us.