Painting rust, Rogue Trader style?

I'm about to dive in and paint up a Rogue Trader Land Raider... I'm in love with the look of the original, from the Rogue Trader rule book (p. 110/111). Anybody know how they got that rust effect on the treads? I'm looking to go as authentic as possible, using the old citadel paints and inks, circa. 1987 (I know there's Ryza Rust these days and so on... but I'm going for the nostalgia, call me crazy). Was there a specific recipe back then to get that look? Ink washes over metallics? Anybody out there have the know how? I would love to hear from you!!
 

Tubehead

Member
spirit_light_speed":29r1r2zw said:
I'm going for the nostalgia, call me crazy).

Here we are, here's the Land Raider in question:
kgXBoh3.jpg

This is the prototype Land Raider c. 1986/7. As I recall this photo was in the rulebook long before the actual Land Raider kit was ready to hit the shelves.
j4vL49P.jpg

I can see why you've asked about this; the rust effect is comparatively very different from what's available these days. My uneducated guess is that it's a custom made formula and not a purpose-made weathering product. I base that only on the fact that the guns of the troopers in the foreground seem to echo the same reddish-orange overtones of the rust.
Now I'm curious too! :)
 
I never really applied rust to my Warhammer miniatures. But I did also do a lot of 1:72 scale War models...and to put rust on vehicles, I used to use Humbrol paint mixed with talcum powder and then applied with a cocktail stick.
 

Tubehead

Member
OldManPaints":tr03qjo8 said:
to put rust on vehicles, I used to use Humbrol paint mixed with talcum powder and then applied with a cocktail stick.

Was that back in the '80's? I can see talcum powder giving the rust a nice knobbly texture. :)
 
Yeah, it was the 80s. Talk is obviously fine, but at that scale mixed in with the paint it does give the desired effect..you might have to move it around a bit with a cocktail stick to get it into position.
 

Tubehead

Member
OldManPaints":11pqff0k said:
at that scale mixed in with the paint it does give the desired effect...
Yes, I could totally see that. That's a good idea. We have all these specially made products we can call upon now, it's interesting to know more about techniques that predate them. I honestly think we could and perhaps should make a thread about resurrecting the 'vintage' approach to model building.
If they have 'retro sound' rock bands now that use vintage equipment, analogue effects, and outdated music production techniques to achieve a vintage-feel sound, then surely fans of vintage hobby culture can re-explore pleasingly old terrain in a similar vein.
spirit_light_speed; you began this by attempting to backengineer a certain technique. Personally I would encourage you to run with this and open a retro-approach modelling forum under Painting and Modelling where our friends like OldManPaints here can contribute more 'vintage' modelling tricks and techniques we can all add to our repertoire.
You never know, we might even save some money on hobby supplies in the long run, if we know how to fabricate our own (while looking fashionably 'retro' at the same time). :)
 

Thark

Member
Hi all,

And what about the color scheme?

I'm trying to figure out the color.. for me looks like space wolves but greener.

Any tip/receipt for getting this?

Thanks a lot in advance!!
 

Loose Loser

Member
Those photos are allover the place. Some are heavy on yellow side, some are heavy on blue side so it's really difficult to tell the real colour. It could be black and light green mix of wash also. I once got really nice mix of green/blue muted colour when I mix black Indian ink ( got more brown when diluted ) and Ecoline light blue ink. So something went off in them. You can always glaze them little by little.

Not helping much but I'm toward grey ( referring to other topic ) from those two to choose.
 

Thark

Member
Thank you!

Just asked on some FB groups and even spoken with a guy that worked at GamesWorkshop on the Rogue Trader Times (yes!) and finally got the answer: this land raider was painted grey! Just grey! (More accuracy: ww2 ship grey)
 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
^I've honestly always felt Space Wolves should be grey, just grey. And I use the same grey I use for . . . wait for it . . . quite a lot of WWII ships. (Though to be fair I also paint WWII ships several shades of blue, green, white black, once in a while even a peachy shade of pink called "Mountbaten Pink", and many many shades of grey. So I'm not sure how much that really helps.)

Please forgive me as I'm not too likely to get the opportunity to drop these pictures here anytime soon, but . . .







 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
^They're actually 1/2400, so half the size. (And I sometimes wish I'd gone with 1/4800, since you can more easily set things up to scale distances.) The models are a mix of Panzerschiffe, GHQ, Superior, Viking Forge, some 3D prints, and even a homemade ship or two. Almost everything has details I added, and several things are pretty heavily converted. (Including Altmark, which is in there.)
 
Back
Top