Playing around with Salt weathering Part 2; plus a tips list!

With this second rust exploration I decided to try the more classic rust mechanisms and methods, while seeing which other techniques I could pick up in the process  to really improve the look of the Hades in its entirety.

First up, just like a porno; try the brown.

One of the other mechanism that some people swear by is just hairspray. No salt. Well I have plenty of tank bases so why not.

I based these tanks hulls with some with very dark brown and then some more orangey browns. Some stippling was attempted as well to see how the effects would work. I then sprayed with hairspray only and painted over a couple of different colours to work out which would be the best counterpoint over the various rust tones, yellow and blacks, the likely colours that I’ll use.

So here are the results, using a cup of boiling water (and I do mean boiling) it was a case of dip dip, scrape scrape. I tried to ensure that the majority of the tanks were very much rusted true to life, so very much around the edges where water would collect. This was fairly laborious, and the first time around I thought the result looked far too regular, so I attempted again with a few more interspersed random jerkiness and scraping.

I was more formulaic with the left-hand pair, and slightly more zany with the right hand pair.

I thought the black and dark brown work well, but then the model would be particularly dark in the end so dubious overall.

Close ups. 

The texture of the above hulls was very flat, and that would be another reason not to purely use that mechanism on very flat surfaces.

The hairspray method is fine, and if done in a minimal manner it can work wonders, but I think a skilled painter has an eye for when something is random, and when you look at example found on a walk below, you’ll see the random nature is very evident.

This prompted me to go for something a little more classic.

More attempts were needed with salt. 

This was my last unpainted tank hull other than the Baneblade, and the Hades. 

This I retried the salt  method, but kept the salt distribution minimal. The grey was simply another experiment. That got me the texture that I wanted, and the colour too.

In the end, I took all the tanks to the most useful of resources, the Gaming Group, laid them out on the table and asked for a group consensus. The more random nature of the salt weathering was the overall winner with them.

These are all the hulls that I've tried, and to me, the ones with the salt look the best (Top left, and third hull along in the top row)

Next up will be painting the Hades, but in this process a Rusting; Top Tips list was formulated. 

I love a good list.

1. Use small-medium grain salt. This is to keep the irregularity of the rust effect. Rust doesn’t clump, it blooms. In an ideal world, get the large and small grain salt and pestle and mortar them into a truly random medium.
2. Get some real-life examples. In the real world raised areas, areas with water pooling, chips and other metals all rust at different rates.
3. The salt will need to be applied within seconds of spraying the hairspray. Otherwise the salt will just blow/can be painted away, and your efforts will be wasted, plus you have hairspray laid down already.
4. Leave the hairspray to dry for at least three hours. Otherwise you gunk up your brush, and the thing collects fingerprints like the police at a crime scene.
5. Pick a rust-like colour. Unless there is real justification (i.e. Verdigris from Bronze etc) stick to the classics, brown or orange-y brown.
6. Hairspray-only method; questionable. For the effort/reward this method I’ve only found to work for me when there is a significant amount of texture on the model already. I.e. Engines (credit to unknown)
   
7. Less is more. Both with salt application, hairspray, and rusting overall, the less the better
8. Get rid of the salt with the hottest water. The salt crystals do not look good if left on. Flicking away with a toothpick is a valid method to shift em.
9. Never immerse. If you have to wash away disturbed particles pass the tank through a running stream of cold water.
10. Don’t use the good hairspray! Just like the better spraypaints, the good stuff costs more (so I’m informed)
11. Key: Don't be afraid to do all of this without an airbrush. None of the above require anything but bristles and water... 

Another technique I'm hopefully improving on is my OSL, see the Cyclops Operator here;

Thanks for perusing. Hades to come soon.