Rust & Corrosion

Four stages of rusting in one box

Rust is not one color. Fresh corrosion blooming on scratched metal is orange and almost glows, a deposit a few months older turns brown and loses its saturation, and a layer of long standing that is already flaking off has a dark tone close to brown-black. Anyone who paints a whole wreck in a single shade ends up with a toy. Only the difference between young and old corrosion turns a model into something that looks as though it really stood somewhere.

This line-up therefore contains four shades: a base brown iron oxide, a medium rust shade and a fresh and an old variant to go with it. Layering in this order creates the transition from a dark core to a bright edge, which is exactly what real corrosion does along the edges of a scratch.

How to work with the powder

• Apply it dry with a stiff brush and start with the dark tone; the light one comes last as a highlight.
• The pigment will not hold by itself and needs fixing; a thinner or a pigment binder is bought separately.
• Apply the fixative with a dropper from the side and let it wick in, as a brush would smear the deposit.
• Let it dry first and only then judge the result, as wet pigment is always darker than dry.

The most convincing effect appears where corrosion makes sense: on edges, around rivets, under the exhaust and in places where water has nowhere to drain.

One more thing about combinations. Pigments from this set can be mixed with earth dust shades to create the transition between corrosion and a deposit of mud of the kind you find on running gear. Always work from dry layers toward wet ones, as the opposite order washes away what you laboriously applied before. And remember that the intensity can be reduced at any time by going over it with a dry brush, whereas adding to it is only possible with further fixing.