I have always wanted to build ones of those tank remains that we see posted in the internet of rusted hulks sitting somewhere in eastern Europe. I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by trying something new. I came across a Crackle type of paint at the craft store and thought it might be useful, so I've been paying around for the past two days to get it down right. I used an old Italeri kit for this build,basically just the upper and lower hull. It will be set in the ground similar to what I did with my PzJgr L48 (Dec constructive feedback forum) but with less work involved in the build of the kit. I wanted to simulate the thick rust encrusted metal and flaked paint seen on old tanks so I spent two days applying this crackling medium in different ways and this is the result so far.

This is the initial look that I was going for but while experimenting I found that this was too extreme and fragile, way too flakie.


Here is a strip of styrene with different methods used. The base paint is a mix of Tamiya dark brown and black, Sort of a dark umber or vandyke brown color I use under rust. Gloss and flat represent Testors acrylic clear coats and "paint" is the color to be applied over the crackle, here Tamiya flat white.






Just playing around to find what works best.


To simulate the thick rust encrusted metal I switched back and forth with the
paint and crackle twice then gave everthing a wash of Vandyke brown and black oils. When this was almost dry I applied lots of ochra umbra mixed with my rust powder.The result was a nice thick rust.



I went with the last method in the test strip and I am sumwhat happy with the result. I added some rust "weathering" but still have to do some more after the model is set in groundwork, then add some earth dust to tone everything down.












Sorry for the long post but I have to get as much in as possible. I have to use my wife's office PC to go on line, so when she's taking a break, then I have take advantage of the time I have on it.

And yes I do have a lot of time to build at the moment, I was laid of work in November,Commission models are done, so after the house work and dogs are taken care of it's time to build. I have one more month before I go back to work so I will try to get as much done as possible.
Any comments or suggestions you have are most welcome.

Rob

One question Rob: where did you get the shrinking machine? You don't really expect us to believe that this is really a painted plastic, do you? I mean, this trully is a masterpiece. I'm watching closely to learn...

-A-

Thanks Ales, your too kind. This could be used for a white wash effect, an alternative to the hairspray method, I'll have to try it out sometime.
I forgot to post the topic when I listed this post last night, sorry for the double posting guys, it was meant to be in the Axis-WWII. I'll try to set this in a base today and will post some new pics.

Rob

This is a tremendous breakthrough technique. You should consider doing a feature for Armorama about how this is done (assuming you don't want to keep the secret for yourself!). Outstanding, it really looks like corroded metal.

Thanks Bill, I don't plan on keeping this a secret, I want to play around with a bit longer til I post a review. I want to see what will happen when all is fully cured.

Rob

Rob, you'er a GENIUS!!. Please do exxplain your new technique, it is absoluetly awesome!!!!

Frank

That really does look the part. I have a bottle of crackle paint that I was planning on using for something else hobby related ,but I never would have thought about using it for rust. please do share your final technique

DITTO! Rob, this technique is absolutly revolutionary!!!!!! Make sure that when you do do a feature on it you dub it "The American School".

This is awesome. I am planning on building a model of the very first car I owned, and this technique will definitely come in handy!

D

Very very realistic looking results here Rob, you've nailed exactly the look you were going for. I'll echo the others comments about a Feature article.

This is most cool!!!

Semper fi,
Dave

I thank you all for the positive comments. I will be working on this technique some more and will be posting those results soon. I will try to do a review on this technique, I'm not much of a writer so bear with, it might take a while.

Rob

Semper Fi Dave

What a result! I really liked the "Rust gloss crackle paint" Loved the way it has three very suttle layers, can see this Tecnique being used alot, by alot of modellers. Fantastic find, much respect for giving us this sneak pre-view. I'm watching, cheers Geraint

Rob if I didn't see the beginning of this I would swear it was metal. Nice work. Very well done.

Rob,
you are a genuine talent man! I am going to be picking up a bottle of that crackle stuff.
Thanks for documenting this!

Steve

Rob,

Truly amazing work! That is a very, very nicely done piece of painting. I've spent a great deal of my life around rusting hulks of different sorts (not unlike myself) and I have to say that you've really got it done perfectly. Not too much surface detail and not too little either. And the different tones in different areas are spot on as well. Well done man!

Jim
Large Scale Armory

Thanks guys, to hear your liking the the effect of the crackle. I'm still playing around with the crackle, using it different ways and with other materials. I've been trying to get the effect were the oxide primer color is visible under and near the vehicle's paint color. I'm getting close to what I'm looking for. I used a masking fluid over pigments then sprayed the primer color after that came the crakle the way I applied it before. Here is what I have so far.





Here I started applying my rust powder.



I still have to remove some of the raised/loose paint. The next experiment is with hairspray...we'll see what happens next.

Rob

Hi Rob,
I love your results with the rust effects. How does it stand up to being handled as some of it looks really flaky? I will be trying come of this soon, thanks for sharing these techniques.
Kenny.

Hi Kenny
Thanks
The first two on the test strip are flaky but the rest are not. I've been repeat each method to see if the results are always the same, it's not. Other than the first two flaky methods the rest have to be done in a similar manner as the hairspray technique. Some of the paint does come off if you use high air pressure from the spray gun. What I do is apply the crackle then spray the paint color before the crackle starts to work/dry, when I have enough paint on the surface I switch to straight air which dries the crackle and starts to peel and remove small pieces of paint. I'll try to explain the different techniques when I do a review on the technique.

Rob

Rob,
All I can say is WOW!
I keep looking at your photos and even though I know it's plastic I think you have made it in metal, just outstanding.
Thanks for sharing
David

that stuff looks brilliant! thanks for sharing

Thanks Sonny and David
I did some work on a few items that will be placed on a base near the PzIV hull. I used some Stug III parts that came with the Dragon Bergetiger kit. Here are the parts that I started, I'm still working on the rust.


Here is the upper hull before the rust.





Some rust applied but not done yet.





I thought about maybe writing some graffiti on the side of the PzIV, in Russian or maybe Polish. What do you guys think? If anyone can help me out with some graffiti, I don't speak either language, that would be great.

Rob

Rob
Really great technics
The effect is totally amazing.
You should write a complete feature on this effect. this is one of the most impressive work.
I would like to know where did you get the Creall Crackel in the US ?
Since it is a Dutch paint company ???

I hope to see your article soon
Cheers
Seb

Hi Sebastien and thanks. I bought the crackle at a craft store here in Mass.I think it's called Michaels, but i'm sure any craft store should carry it. As far as an article goes, I'll be working on that soon.

Rob

Hi Rob,

This is really fantastic work and very impressive. Thank you Jim for the link on ML, and congrats on bringing a new product into the armor modeling fold. I think some of my railroading buddy's have tried similar ideas, but this is the first time I've seen it applied to armor subjects.

I'd like to give this idea a try real soon, I hope you don't you mind a few quick process questions.

• How are you applying the "paint" layer--airbrush or brush?
• How much of the surface are you covering with the Crackle? Stipple or simply brush it over everything?
• How do you remove exposed areas--with a brush, like with the hairspray idea?
• Does it require the use of water to scrub away the exposed areas?

I hope I am not asking you to give any secrets before you get a proper article put together, but it would help to further understand what you've achieved in the photos to date.

Thanks for sharing, and I look forward to seeing the final results. Your test strips were a great idea, I've saved them for future ref.

Best,

Mike