I have a small brass bucket to hang on my tiger but I'm not sure how to go about painting it. I remember seeing a mig tutorial where he used a silver base and then textured it with a sponge but mine came out less than convincing when I attempted it. So I stripped it and I'm back to bare brass. If anyone has any ideas I'd be happy to hear them.

That's a good question, Matthew. I've never been especially successful with bare metal finishes. The idea of using a sponge sounds intriguing. I'll looking forward to seeing what kind of replies you get. Sorry I can't help directly.

Can you share some pictures what kind of effects you'd like to achive?

Hi Matthew - Go to Wingnut Wings website - in their tips section there is a tutorial on painting metal cowlings to give a engine turned effect but to me it also passes for new hot dipped galvanized- if the bucket is really brass you could also tin it with solder which looks just like hot dipped galvanized .
Hope this helps - Richard

I haven't had much luck trying to upload pics onto here recently. If you're interested, pm me and ill shoot you some images. I'm just trying to replicate the color of the buckets you see hanging on the back of some German tanks. If in fact they were galvanized steel as I'm assuming.

You should be able to replicate this by painting the bucket steel, then stippling grey over it.

Hi Matthew,
IMHO: How about a beat-up look? — no need for the shiny galvanized texture finish, unless you just really want that look, of course.
Here's a Eureka XXL bucket I painted awhile ago: Link

HTH.🍺
—mike

Oh snap! I like that!

Jon: that's exactly what I saw awhile back, and exactly what I was going for. I couldn't remember the steps. Thank you for that.

Your bucket looked pretty cool to me man. It had the look of something that had been outside and in use like the reference photos I looked at. Those were beat to death. What method did you use?

Thanks Matthew! It really just boils down to free-forming, using my imagination and whatever is on the paint shelf at the time. And since I can’t rely on my memory, I always take notes as I go. So here’s my “bucket list.”

Acrylics never want to stick to PE, so I always start with Tamiya rattle-can Fine Surface Primer (light grey) for metal parts. In this case, I actually liked it as the base coat. After which, I pin-washed with Vallejo European Dust Wash (76.523). For the stains, I used a course brush and cotton-swab to dab on Vallejo Dark Rust (70.302). Then, I used a fine brush to create the gross streaks. The handle was painted with Vallejo Grey Green (71.055) and dabbed with Dark Rust once again. Once painting was finished, I airbrushed the bucket with Vallejo Matt Varnish (70.520).

Note: Vallejo Dark Rust (70.302) has kind of a translucence depending on how it is applied, it is one of my favorite weathering paints.

Glad to help!🍺
—mike

Thank you Mike. Im gonna give this a shot. I don't have all of the vallejo colors but I've got plenty of weathering stuff from ammo I can substitute with. Good looking out man.