How to: Rusty/weather effect for Panzer 4 muffler

There are many different ways depending on what type of paints you use to get this effect. I'll describe mine but there's no real "one true way" to do it. I paint the mufflers in a basecoat of Testor's Model Master Non-buffing Metalizer Gunmetal (you should see them try to print THAT on the bottle label ), then apply a thin wash (90% thinner, 10% paint) of MM enamel Rust and let it dry. Then follow that with a dry-brushing of MM enamel Burnt Umber to deepen the tone and voila! rusted muffler.

While not a Pz IV, this will give you an idea of the effect it produces:

Then with weathering and final finish attention...it looks like this:

I'm presently working on a Mk.IV chassis and had to do the exhaust, The vehicle I'm building is old so the exhaust is quite worn.

 I done it as so:

1. Textured the unit with liquid cement.
2. lightly sanded.
3. Based with browns and flesh, randomly applied.
4. painted in the scratched/burned remains of the base colour.
5. washed out with burnt sienna/raw umber.

Added mig pigment rust to a very thin mix of the wash and applied liberally, I still haave a lot of work to do, but I hope these shots of the W.I.P help.

Regards,

Terry.

I do this:

1. Paint the muffler in Model master "Rust" or something similar 

2. Grind a little of the reddish-brown pastel stick (from a pack of artists' pastels, earth-tones) onto your pallette (or whatever you use).

3. Mix in a little Rustall, or something similar

4. Apply this mixture to the muffler, as a wash

 Hope that helps

Hmmm. Sort of an add-on question here. How long did it take for the muffler to get all rusty? I'm assuming that they didn't roll out of the factory already corroding. What's the actual "base color"? If you're doing a relatively new vehicle, what would it look like?

I only ask because I'm painting my Hornisse...which was only a month or two old by the time it got to Kursk. 

Pastels work great and are a great way to do this.

Another "oldschool" trick for the larger scales is to paint the part a rust color and then while still wet, cover it in fine powder like scrubbing cleanser. How wet and much powder you want to stick depends on how old and rusty you want the muffler to be. Then repaint it to cover the powder and you get a nice grainy texture represnting a scroungy, rusted up muffler.

dahut wrote:

Pastels work great and are a great way to do this. Another "oldschool" trick for the larger scales is to paint the part a rust color and then while still wet, cover it in fine powder like scrubbing cleanser. How wet and much powder you want to stick depends on how old and rusty you want the muffler to be. Then repaint it to cover the powder and you get a nice grainy texture represnting a scroungy, rusted up muffler.

dupes wrote:

Hmmm. Sort of an add-on question here. How long did it take for the muffler to get all rusty? I'm assuming that they didn't roll out of the factory already corroding. What's the actual "base color"? If you're doing a relatively new vehicle, what would it look like? I only ask because I'm painting my Hornisse...which was only a month or two old by the time it got to Kursk.

I would assume they were painted with the rest of the tank but remember some German tanks had the sheilds over the exhaust pipes because they glowed from being so hot. At that temp the paint wouldn't last but a VERY short while and then they'd start rusting...

Gotta vehemently disagree with ya here, dahut; DO NOT cover ANY model part with ANY " SCRUBBING CLEANSER-type" chemically active powder, or get ready for somewhere down the road a catastrophe in your finish when the chemcals leach out into the paint and start to eat it or attack it...

Like I said, it's oldschool and may have been baking soda, I dont recall anymore. I see your point and it IS a good one - I dont remember if any of the models I tried this on ever melted down into a toxic heap as you suggest they might. They never lasted through kids, moves and/or being blown up with firecrackers.

Probably best to try something else. Was just the only thing I could think of.