Iron Test Piece - Think I figured it out...

[macvsog]

So I think I figured out a nice way of making iron etc for 1:18. Click the link below to see the pictures.

http://community.webshots.com/user/macvsog101st

I took some thin sheet/plate metal… if you could get this without anti-rust coating that would be better, but for the life of me I couldn’t find any.

So unfortunately, I had to use Hydrochloric Acid (which I bought at home depot in the garden center - 2 gallons for 7 dollars) But if you use this please be careful. I am looking for safer alternatives and will let you know if I find one. It’s really not so bad though, just be sure to wear safety goggles and a dust mask and gloves. Do it outside and make sure you do it in a PLASTIC bowl that you don’t care about. Remember that any acid is neutralized by water and it isn’t going to instantly burn you or anything.

I’m thinking about using Naval Jelly or maybe bleach next time, but I don’t know how those would work, but if you can find plate metal without the anti-rust coating on it then you can totally bypass the hydrochloric acid step.

So anyways, if you use the acid, just put your final cut piece in the acid for a couple of minutes and then douse with lots of water. If you don’t need this, then just go to the next step.

Submerge the pieces in some apple cider vinegar for about an hour. You may want to agitate a few times to make sure no bubbles are present and therefore protect the piece of metal they are on. This step is totally safe, no worries. After that take the piece out and dry. Put them on a thick bed of paper towels.

Here you have two choices. For runny, very bright highly layers rust you want the side that is supposed to show face up in the towels. If you want darker, crustier and tougher (in my opinion better) rust then put the side you want showing in your final piece, face down on the towels.

Use a spray bottle of water and spray the pieces wet again. Make sure to get the paper towels wet, but not soaking, so that the water will wick under the metal. Every time you find the pieces dry, spray them with water again. The rust will form quickly on the top, and slower on the bottom. In the pictures I used the side that was face down on the paper towels and in my opinion looks a lot better. The rust you see in those pictures took about two days. I sprayed them maybe about two dozen or so times.

In the pictures I just put them together with some regular old air-drying clay, but I would normally use milliput or something else that air-dries. The clay is supposed to represent a weld, but I was just playing and seeing if thicker or thinner or side or top welds look better. After the pieces rust and I put them together on a piece of foam core and set the clay weld you HAVE TO SEAL THIS PIECE WITH FUTURE FLOOR WAX. Or the rust will start to chip off as you work with it. I then painted it a tiny little bit (most just the weld) and sealed it again with floor wax.

This is just a test piece because I was just curious as to make good looking rust that was, with the exception of the hydrochloric acid step, very easy and effective. I think I found it as it gives great texture and color.

I’ll answer any questions and let you know when I find a safer alternative to working with metal that is treated with anti-rust coating.

And this is a variation off another modeler’s steps at making rust that I found on the net, but I have changed and I think improved it as he had it standing up and not flat on towels and a few other changes.

Let me know what you think, still developing this one,

-mike-

[luftpanzer]

Looks good. But I cant believ you ruined a perfectly good 1/18th spitfire in your RAF down photos. Please say your dog got a hold of it or your wife stomped on it before you used it in the photo, then that will not hurt so bad. LOL

[macvsog]

Oh, haha everyone says that about the plane. The plane was very, very broken when I got it. But I got it for cheap, so I bashed it for that project.

-mike-

[luftpanzer]

Thank God, I thought we had a raving lunatic on our hands.

[DVSk89]

haha that's kind of what i thought you would do..get it cheap. But I like all your customs on your webshots site.

[INTREPER]

I shed a tear when I saw that RAF....but man, does it look killer!!!