Brass, Iron, or Steel?

[Conquistador]

Looking at Assorted Automations, Walkers, land Ironclads, etc. for 19th Century (mostly VSF  but I want to try and stay in the 19th Century historical look as much as possible,)  I was debating which should be brass (automations?) or Iron (Walkers, Land Ironclads?) or Steel?

Brass would tarnish and Iron/Steel would rust so I could weather the pieces (I extremely rarely bother (simple painting is traumatic enough most of the time)  but these would be small units or singletons so I might justify the effort.

Also, why brass?  Cost?  Cool factor?  Both might (in thick enough plates) deflect lead bullets I suspect.  Would you need more weight/mass/thickness  for brass to deflect the rifle bullets of the era? 

Your thoughts on this subject  of which metal color to use and why?

Gracias,

Glenn

[Gluteus Maximus]

Looking at Assorted Automations, Walkers, land Ironclads, etc. for 19th Century (mostly VSF  but I want to try and stay in the 19th Century historical look as much as possible,)  I was debating which should be brass (automations?) or Iron (Walkers, Land Ironclads?) or Steel?

Brass would tarnish and Iron/Steel would rust so I could weather the pieces (I extremely rarely bother (simple painting is traumatic enough most of the time)  but these would be small units or singletons so I might justify the effort.

Also, why brass?  Cost?  Cool factor?  Both might (in thick enough plates) deflect lead bullets I suspect.  Would you need more weight/mass/thickness  for brass to deflect the rifle bullets of the era? 

Your thoughts on this subject  of which metal color to use and why?

Gracias,

Glenn

Papa Midnight has used a combination of black and brass to great effect, but these are all smaller vehicles than landships. I'd say for government contraptions, go for the "battleship" look - plain grey, sand, black etc, or maybe even a naval "dazzle" camo effect. For those used by the average evil genius/mad inventor any colour but with lots of brass embellishment.

Just my personal likes, of course, but I think you'd really need painted steel for armour and just use brass etc to add a bit of Victorian flavour.

[Bullshott]

The Victorians used:

Painted steel for protection
Painted wrought iron for fancy decoration
Brass for decoration, where iron or steel woulf interfere with magnetic items (like a ship's compass) and where iron or steel might sieze-up (like the traversing rails for the bow chasers on HMS Warrior)