Painting PSP - I think I made a mess

Other than what has already been suggested above? Ummmmm ... no. This was my first attempt at this stuff. I think I will do the next one with enamels and oil or acrylic washes, though, because I just can't seem to get the varied, truly rusty look I want using the Rustall system. I'm still not sure how people got some of the results shown on the Rustall website.

MFSOB, I've had my eye on the PSP at the Hobbyshop I work at, but I'm scared of painting it. Do you have any insightful tips on painting?

Many thanks for all the input! I have gone back and applied a light black wash, which was quickly rubbed off, and that helped highlight all the holes; and added some drybrushed enamel paint rust in a few spots. Using the Rustall "system" doesn't really allow you to make precision applications of the stuff, but with several days to play with it, I'm generally pleased with the results.

Steel in a desert environment may not rust quite as rapidly as if it were close to the sea or in a high humidity area, but it will rust. Rust is iron oxide. As the name implies, it comes from oxidation of the steel, which is a natural chemical reaction between the iron and oxygen. Salt and water can certainly act as catalysts that can & will expedite the reaction but there's no reason to assume that a dry environment will inhibit rust.

Remember also that the PSP was taken there across the ocean; even if it was painted beforehand, it was carried in bundles aboard a ship (possibly stacked on the deck). It was likely to have suffered plenty of scratching & scraping to remove the paint and trigger the oxidation before it even reached its destination.

I recall a similar thread on this forum several months ago about barbed wire in a desert environment.

As for your PSP, all of the suggestions for improvement so far seem valid, but I'll also add that perhaps the colour is too uniform. Mask off and spray slightly different shades of "rust" colour here and there on individual panels of PSP, similar to picking out panels on an aircraft finished in natural metal.

PSP was painted olive drab green to begin with, so in a desert environment it wouldn't be all that rusty.  It would have polished areas where the most traffic occurred, a little surface rust, but would still be green painted.  The CG PBY base is in Greenland where it snows and rains constantly, not like an arid desert.  They would also have used salt and later used urea to clear ice so it would be rusted.  And look at the time frame of the PSP.  The US North African campaign started in Nov. 1942 and continued to almost the end of 1943.  It probably was only in use for a year.  That photo of the CG base was probably taken in the 1950's, so it had more rust.  I would follow the example of the Mustand pic as this would be more accurate, as it shows the olive drab color except where the steel has been polished from high traffic over it.   

Wouldnt North Africa have a more arid climate with less humidity? I would think the plating would have hardly any rust, but covered with dust/sand.

Try either a black or maybe tan oil wash?

 

mfsob wrote:

   I think the base you have here will look just fine if you darken all those holes. In fact i think it would be just right.......

   Or the other way...lighten the holes. If you noticed near the right lower corner of your base, the holes are filled with a light colour, as if the desert sand was showing through. If you did that with the rest of the holes it have have a similar effect of breaking up the 'solid' rust colour...

   Boomer...

   Ok, back with those pics for you....

   First is some rusty PSP, but a different shade of colour. This may be more what you are looking for....see how the ground colour shows through. Maybe that is why yours looks 'too rusty'.....your perforations are rusty too. Darkening the holes would add more contrast over the entire base......

    

   And this one is more what i was talking about with the metal having a more polished effect. The PSP in this picture is fairly new i would say....but again, the ground showing through breaks up the monotonous metal colour....

   

    I guess from the photos so far.........you can almost go with what you are happy with and what looks right...............

    Keep us posted and show us what you come up with. Experiment and it will all work out..

the doog wrote:

mfsob wrote: Good point about it all being rusty ... I wondered about that too. This is kind of what I was going on, the only contemporaneous color photo I could find of PSP in WWII, at a Coast Guard base in Greenland: Well...? Geez, that looks pretty darned accurate to me?! I'd say its a done deal!

  ......I concur with the Doog. You have a colour reference and you are mighty close to what is in the colour pic. You can go with what you have, or maybe you may just want to experiment with different shades until you are happy.

   I have two more colour pics that i found that i wanted to post for you. But i can't seem to log into my photo hosting site to upload them....will keep trying...

   Boomer...

mfsob wrote:

Good point about it all being rusty ... I wondered about that too. This is kind of what I was going on, the only contemporaneous color photo I could find of PSP in WWII, at a Coast Guard base in Greenland:

Well...? Geez, that looks pretty darned accurate to me?! I'd say its a done deal!

Good point about it all being rusty ... I wondered about that too. This is kind of what I was going on, the only contemporaneous color photo I could find of PSP in WWII, at a Coast Guard base in Greenland:

   It was a good try. Ithink you have made it so that is  all to rusty. For such a large area, so much rust colour may be to overwhelming. I know that bare metal in an open environment rusts very quickly, even overnight sometimes. I would have thought though, that in a heavily used and trafficed area that you are portraying, that the metal would continue to be 'polished'. Maybe it would turn out better if you kept it to a bare metal sheen, 'rust up' some small areas that may away from the area of activity. I think it needs a heavier wash to accentuate the perforations in the PSP. Weather it with earth coloured pastels maybe, to give it that dusty effect which you would find in the desert.

   Just my thoughts, i am sure there will be other suggestions coming along shortly......

   Boomer...