Rust effects

[AegisD]

I\'ve been painting various individual figures for about a year now (to varying degrees of success) but I managed to pick up about 3000 points worth of necrons on ebay, and I want to start painting them. Problem is, I can\'t really decide on a color scheme.

Plain metal necrons tend to be pretty boring no matter how you highlight them, and I don\'t want to dedicate a massive amount of time to trying to shade all of the buggers, so I settled on a rust effect. Well, actually I\'m trying to choose between two.

The one on the left takes longer, because it is a black base, followed by a layer of scorched earth, scorched earth/blazing orange drybrushed in 50/50 mix, some blazing orange stippled on over that, and with boltgun metal lightly painted on parts for a scratch effect.
The one on the right is faster, since it\'s just boltgun metal with a mud wash to dull it, then scorched earth, graveyard dirt, and blazing orange stippled on with a foam pad.
I\'m just shooting for whatever looks more realistic. Any feedback is appreciated.

Edit:

 

[In Chigh P.I.]

pics dont upload here, you should use photobucket

 

[AegisD]

Originally posted by In Chigh P.I.
pics dont upload here, you should use photobucket

Oh. I didn\'t know if maybe I was just doing something wrong or the attach file function wasn\'t picking up my pics through NoScript or something. But I already had a yahoo account, so flickr was more logical. Thanks though.

Anyway the pics are up, along with some of a tomb spyder using the same rust theme as the warrior with the red shoulder guards.

 

[In Chigh P.I.]

The one on the right looks much better, although you should be aiming to get the rust in the recesses rather than the raised areas i feel (thats the ship modeller in me speaking i guess tho lol)

Have you tried weathering pigments? I bet you could achieve some good results with that, quick & reasonably inexpensive too

 

[generulpoleaxe]

spray silver, use a mig rust wash.
paint eyes and blackline.
flock base.
done.

painting necorons for armies is super quick and easy, if you need to you can go back afterwards and add highlights to the metal with a touch of silver.

 

[AegisD]

Originally posted by In Chigh P.I.
The one on the right looks much better, although you should be aiming to get the rust in the recesses rather than the raised areas i feel (thats the ship modeller in me speaking i guess tho lol)

Have you tried weathering pigments? I bet you could achieve some good results with that, quick & reasonably inexpensive too

I\'m leaning towards it myself. And yeah, I should try to get it in more of the curves and cracks but it was just a quick test piece on one of the ones that was already done up in boltgun.

I can\'t find weathering pigments around me though (all the hobby shops in my are are woefully understocked). But if you could recommend on online supply I\'d be happy to try them.

 

[squig hunter]

Just find an artists materials shop, and buy some chalk pastel sticks, then just scrape powder off them, or get some sandpaper. Same thing basically, and generally a wider range of tones for less money too, bought some the other day and they only set me back about 40 pence for a pastel stick that will last for ages

Squig

 

[shakes]

i personally think the one with the red shoulder pads looks much more realistic, i do however like the shoulders on the right one more, not because i prefer the scheme but because they look to me, to be better painter. i think the red pads would look alot better if you painter the scratches black then silver and left the black showing around the edges of the scratches, pretty quick. if you wanna do more you could paint some blazing orange or similar color along the bottom edges of the scratches. make it pop a little more.
love the overall rust effect.

shakes

 

[AegisD]

Originally posted by shakes
i think the red pads would look alot better if you painter the scratches black then silver and left the black showing around the edges of the scratches, pretty quick. if you wanna do more you could paint some blazing orange or similar color along the bottom edges of the scratches. make it pop a little more.
love the overall rust effect.

shakes

This is a technique I\'m actually still trying desperately to master. It seems that every time I try it it just turns out very awkward. I\'ll keep it in mind though. Although I\'m not sure about the red overall anyway since I have two liths\' to paint as well and I\'m going to have a hard time working red into that I think. At least in a tasteful way that doesn\'t clash with all the green crystals and make it look like Christmas. lol

As for the powder. I do have some drawing pastels (chalky not oily) I picked up for this exact purpose. My only concern is that as these are going to be part of a traveling army, not competition pieces, I\'m a bit worried about it rubbing off even if I spray over it with a clear coat of some kind.

I\'m still pretty torn between the two and might end up doing a sort of combination in the end.
I just hope I can decide where I want to go with this before I start painting my night bringer, which is probably the most amazing mini in concept I\'ve encountered, but also the poorest sculpted I have yet to see. The whole left side of mine from the waist up was pretty much non-existent, so I spent a good couple hours yesterday sculpting his abs, and a bit sanding them today. I think it came out rather well for my first time using greenstuff though.

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by generulpoleaxe
spray silver, use a mig rust wash.
paint eyes and blackline.
flock base.
done.

painting necorons for armies is super quick and easy, if you need to you can go back afterwards and add highlights to the metal with a touch of silver.

agreed. the rust would look much more realistic than paint too imo

 

[AegisD]

Originally posted by freakinacage

Originally posted by generulpoleaxe
spray silver, use a mig rust wash.
paint eyes and blackline.
flock base.
done.

painting necorons for armies is super quick and easy, if you need to you can go back afterwards and add highlights to the metal with a touch of silver.

agreed. the rust would look much more realistic than paint too imo

The thing about that is I live in the US, so it would cost about $30 for the two rust washes total. Which I\'d be willing to pay if I really liked the effect, but unfortunately I can\'t find any pictures of them in use. Does anyone here use them?

 

[freakinacage]

in that case, buy some rust coloured pastels (or colored as you are in the us!), grind them up and use them instead. i have had some great effects with these. cheap, easy and effective

 

[AegisD]

Originally posted by freakinacage
in that case, buy some rust coloured pastels (or colored as you are in the us!), grind them up and use them instead. i have had some great effects with these. cheap, easy and effective

I\'ll look into that.

But I finally found a technique I like overall. The whole time I was thinking in terms of orange for oxidation and I should have been thinking in browns/reds. I\'ll post pics of the new tech as soon as I have a chance to test it out more. But thank you all so so much for your help and your input! :beer: