Wednesday, July 29, 2020

My Recipe For Painting Rust

More then a few times someone asked me how do I paint rust on my miniatures. So I thought this would be a perfect subject for my first tutorial. The process I am going to show you is suitable for painting various stages of rust, depending on how much technical paint and pigments you use. Here are the examples of various stages of rust on shields done with this technique:


To complete this tutorial you will need the following:

PAINTS:

  • Citadel Leadbelcher (or any other dark metal color, like Vallejo Chainmail)
  • Citadel Nuln Oil (or any other black wash)
  • Citadel Typhus Corrosion 

PIGMENTS:

  • MIG Productions Old Rust (or any other dark rust pigment)
  • MIG Productions Standard Rust (or any other medium rust pigment)
  • MIG Productions Light Rust (or any other light rust pigment)
  • MIG Productions Pigment Fixer  


STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL


STEP 1
Basecoat the model in black or dark grey color. It is a good idea to give it a zenithal highlight, although it is not necessary.


STEP 2
Paint the metal area in dark metal color such as Leadbelcher from Citadel or Chainmail from Vallejo.


STEP 3
Wash the area with Nuln Oil from Citadel or any other black wash. You could probably get away with not doing this step but I think it is worth the effort because there is a subtle difference in depth in final paintjob.


STEP 4
Paint the the whole area with watered down Typhus Corrosion. Then apply pure Typhus Corrosion to the parts where rust would accumulate more heavily to give it more texture. While the paint is still wet I like to run my finger over some exposed details like edges, rivets, etc. making these details highlighted and less affected by rust.


STEP 5
Apply Old Rust or any other dark rust pigment. Apply it with a brush, as a powder, not mixed with water. Cover most of the surface but think about where would rust in real life accumulate more and put more pigment to those areas (most often that would be the same areas where you applied pure Typhus Corrosion).


STEP 6
Apply Standard Rust or any other medium rust pigment. As you are moving to lighter rust tones you should concentrate on smaller areas, more affected with rust. Like (in this example) places where metal got eaten through by rust or in the recesses.


STEP 7
Apply the Light Rust pigment to the spots most affected by rust.

STEP 8
To seal/fix the pigments in place use the Pigment Fixer. Apply it with a brush but without doing brush strokes. You don't want to mess everything up. Just touch the surface on a few spots with a loaded brush and let the capillary effect do it's work. Keep in mind that the pigments get toned down once you apply pigment fixer, so don't be afraid to go a little overboard when applying them.


And there you have it, I hope you found this tutorial useful. 🧛‍♀️ Cheers! 🍺

Real life examples:


9 comments:

  1. Awesome, thanks! Your minis are really inspiring, I love the aesthetic you achieved.

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  2. Just found your blog and simply love it! Keep going!

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  3. I just discovered your blog and, as it is already said, your work is really inspiring! Awesome atmosphere and hues. I simply love what you did with those skeletons you posted on Instagram. I look forward to seeing your future projects!

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    1. Thank you Thomas, I'm really grateful!
      Feedback like this keeps me motivated. :)
      Cheers man! 🍻

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  4. I found my way back to this blog and now I see you have posted a lot since last time I was here. Very inspiring and intuitive tutorials, very user friendly while still you reach such great results, keep em coming and please, create a tutorial on how you paint the exterior of your buildings, brick/stone work, wood work, shingles on the roof!

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    Replies
    1. Wow, thank you! It's really nice to get such a positive feedback. It keeps me motivated to do more.
      Will do!
      🍻

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