Admiral's Gunboat Thread - Some painting Update 27. Nov.

[Admiral Benbow]

Fresh from the workbench - I finished painting and weathering the boiler and machinery:







This boiler has indeed seen better days! The former redish paint is barely seen, and the rest is a heap of rust. But the old engine is working as reliable as ever, that's what I've heard from the Captain at least!

It was a real lot of fun to practise some of the techniques I've learned from the masters of railroading craftsman: rubber cement masking to get old paint layers, pastel and alcohol treatments and pure pastel rust finishing.

Only one week left and still so much to do ...
 

[CompanyB]

ooo, I love that paint job.  Excellent!    Have you tried the coarse salt/airbrush technique?  that works very well, but the masking/rubber cement works just as well.

I've use the rusting materials as well..but I find the metal paint always has to go one too thick to see detail.  But it usually rusts up very well (sometimes too much!)

Damn, that weathering you've done makes me want to make the "junk yard" version of chitty as well...  looks like I have my next project.

[Captain Blood]

  Simply astonishing art and craftsmanship. I am in awe.

Is the rust literally achieved just using pastels, or have you used any of the AFV modelling weathering 'powders' (and do you seal it afterwards, and if so, with what?)

[Svennn]

So now we have a painted boiler that is so good it could win the contest on its own

That is such a fantastic piece of "colouring in" I am gobsmacked.

The finished boat is going to be off the scale - awesome.

[gamer Mac]

Out standing
Love the effects of the flakey paint..

[Thunderchicken]

 

Wow!

[Hammers]

Jesus, Mary and Joseph...!

[Geudens]

... and all other Saints!!!!!

Rudi

[Admiral Benbow]

Is the rust literally achieved just using pastels, or have you used any of the AFV modelling weathering 'powders' (and do you seal it afterwards, and if so, with what?)

Thanks everybody for your support, you keep me going!

Years ago I bought a very cheap 16 bags set of "weathering powders", and use them since then exclusively. I sincerely believe that all the expensive ranges by MIG and all the others are nothing else than finely ground pastels, and before buying my set I only used rubbed down standard artists pastels alone. There are two basic techniques with those powders:

- brush them on with a fine dry brush, rub them down with your fingers, a Q-tip or whatever, blow away the surplus and let them be. Don't seal them with any varnish or matt coat or you can start all over again ...

- brush them on with a larger brush, mix some other tones in between, take another brush and flood the area with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Let the alcohol evaporate (goes very fast), and you'll have the powders fixed down the surfaces and in all crevices. Basic colour coats should be thoroughly dried acrylics to be sure that the alcohol can't solve them.

Try it, it's fun!
 

[former user]

good to know, thx

does this mean You can't touch the weathered parts then?

[Silent Invader]

Astounding work Admiral B.  Your work is an inspiration.

[Hammers]

Dry pastels is a medium I have yet to master. I have a very nice boxed set odd artists dry pastels and a three tone set of rust tone  brush on powders  which I hereto only used on myself to accentuate my cheekbones on an  occasional Saturday night.

[Zafarelli]

Stunning effect on the flaking paint!

It was a real lot of fun to practise some of the techniques I've learned from the masters of railroading craftsman: rubber cement masking to get old paint layers, pastel and alcohol treatments and pure pastel rust finishing.

Could you elaborate a bit on this? I've been trying to achieve this effect for quite some time, but never really succeded.

[Admiral Benbow]

Alright, here's a short step-by-step description of painting and weathering the tank:

1. Undercoated with white acrylic colour from a spray can.
2. Brush-painted Vallejo Game Colour Plague Brown; let dry.
3. Mixed in a drop of dark brown colour into the base colour and stippled the surface randomly with a small piece of blister foam.
4. Stippled the surface again very lightly (!) with an even smaller piece of foam and some dark brown colour for getting a "scratches" effect.
5. Took another piece of foam, picked up a bit of cement from a blotch of rubber cement, and stippled the surface randomly. It would have been an improvement to thin down that rubber cement with its special thinner. Then the stippling would be much easier as the stuff won't dry out that fast, but unfortunately I didn't have bought that thinner. Instead of foam you could use anything else like old brushes, toothpicks or whatever. Let dry some hours.
6. For the topcoat I used a deep brick red ink from Rotring with my airbrush (after masking all surrounding areas, of course  ). You could possibly paint this on with a soft brush, but I prefer the airbrush for that even coat of colour. Let dry some hours.
7. Use pieces of masking tape and tape them on a surface area, then lift them off immediately and the rubber cement will tack to the tape and can be removed, showing the underlying basic colour. Repeat as much as you like.
8. To tone down the contrast between basic colour and topcoat, wash over with some dirt coloured ink or an alcohol/colour mix.
9. Seal with flat varnish.
10. Add details like oil streaks etc. ...

Have fun ...
 

[Zafarelli]

So it is rust first, then flaking paint on top? The rubber cement wouldn't happen to be the stuff you use to mend bike tires, would it? I've seen a product called Maskol mentioned for that technique, but never really went out to look for it. On the other hand, a puncture repair kit should be around here somewhere