I work to give my models a worn look, and one of the big parts of this is painting metal to look rusted.
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One thing that is important to remember is that quite often the process of painting rust looks awful up until the last couple of steps. It took me a long time to develop this technique and still I find myself needing faith in the process when the individual steps look unappealing.
*Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!*
I always start by priming my models brown. The priming color is not as important for this particular model, but brown works best for everything else that I am doing.
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In the areas that are going to be metal (eventually rusted) I start by painting dark brown.
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Next I mix 1 part dark brown and 2 parts bright orange and make some large splotches throughout the metal areas.
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I add some smaller splotches of pure bright orange inside the large splotches.
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After the browns it is time to actually make this look metallic. I use a watered down cheap acrylic paint at this point because you want the brown to still show through. You also want this metal to be on the darker end of the spectrum. Cover the whole metal area, but once again make sure that you can still see the brown underneath.
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Next you are going to highlight/drybrush the metallic areas with a brighter silver such as mithril silver.
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Lastly you will want to give the whole thing a dark brown wash or a dark green wash depending on what effect you want. I used a dark green wash in this instance because of my Nurgle theme.
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Normally I do the other areas at the same time as my metal, so now I am going to fill in the details on the skin (guide coming soon), wires, and all the other goodies.
Some people use dry pigments to paint rust, and this can work well for smaller areas. I use dry pigments for some of the open sores, dust, and dripping rust on vehicles.
Painting Guides in the Future:
Skin (this will be next as I can just finish up these two models.)
These are possible topics for guide in the future:
Dry Pigments
General Nurgle Theme
Object Source Lighting (glow effects)
Using Greenstuff
Pinning
If there is one of these guides you are particularly interested in let me know and I can start work on it first (because I have to paint new models), or if there is something else you are interested in seeing leave a comment below.
One thing that is important to remember is that quite often the process of painting rust looks awful up until the last couple of steps. It took me a long time to develop this technique and still I find myself needing faith in the process when the individual steps look unappealing.
*Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!*
I always start by priming my models brown. The priming color is not as important for this particular model, but brown works best for everything else that I am doing.
In the areas that are going to be metal (eventually rusted) I start by painting dark brown.
Next I mix 1 part dark brown and 2 parts bright orange and make some large splotches throughout the metal areas.
I add some smaller splotches of pure bright orange inside the large splotches.
After the browns it is time to actually make this look metallic. I use a watered down cheap acrylic paint at this point because you want the brown to still show through. You also want this metal to be on the darker end of the spectrum. Cover the whole metal area, but once again make sure that you can still see the brown underneath.
Next you are going to highlight/drybrush the metallic areas with a brighter silver such as mithril silver.
Lastly you will want to give the whole thing a dark brown wash or a dark green wash depending on what effect you want. I used a dark green wash in this instance because of my Nurgle theme.
Normally I do the other areas at the same time as my metal, so now I am going to fill in the details on the skin (guide coming soon), wires, and all the other goodies.
Some people use dry pigments to paint rust, and this can work well for smaller areas. I use dry pigments for some of the open sores, dust, and dripping rust on vehicles.
Painting Guides in the Future:
Skin (this will be next as I can just finish up these two models.)
These are possible topics for guide in the future:
Dry Pigments
General Nurgle Theme
Object Source Lighting (glow effects)
Using Greenstuff
Pinning
If there is one of these guides you are particularly interested in let me know and I can start work on it first (because I have to paint new models), or if there is something else you are interested in seeing leave a comment below.