Thread: How to age plastic?

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I am trying to re-do my failed brain in the jar prop. It leaks, and it's just a mess... so while surfing around the other night I came across this website: ☠Artsy☠Chiqua☠ - Purgatory

She has 2 great ideas I am going to "borrow" One I am working on now for my re-make of the Brain in the Jar. The 2nd for a creepy jar of eyes. She used Hair Gel for the eyes instead of water - brilliant! That way they don't float to the top.

Anyways! Moving back to the brain in the jar. I have a fish tank exactly like that in the photo, but I am lost as to how to give it the old grimy aging. In her tutorial she shows using "Great Stuff Foam" on the plastic bezels, but it didn't look like she used it on the fish tank walls.

So I am asking how do I go about achieving that same look on the clear plastic windows?

Thanks!!

Here's a photo from the site for quicker reference:

On 2nd glance, maybe she did use the great stuff on the clear fish tank walls and let it dry, then scraped it off so it was flat? It doesn't look as bumpy as the top part does. So I am still confused!

Thoughts?

From looking at her list of supplies, I'm thinking she used an oil based glaze with paint and just dabbed in on the plastic fishtank walls on the outside. If you look at some of the pictures in normal light, you can see the silver paint. I think it actually looks more textured on the glass because of reflections.

Very cool project and website. hadn't seen that one before. Thanks for sharing it.

I agree with Giles. It appears she did some dabbing of a paint maybe even latex paint. It also appears that she did a light sanding into the panes to haze them a bit.

It does appear to be scrapped off foam on the bottles in the rear.

Use an airbrush and some acrylic paints to get that grimy used look!

Spray snow will give it the calcified look if you leave it the sun for awhile.
Or you could just mist it with white spray paint.
You can also sand it.

Ah ha! White spray paint, there's something I'm familiar with! I am not familiar with oil glazes or airbrushing. White spray paint still seems like it could be too much. Can I pick up the oil glaze at a Michaels or something? That seems like it just rubs on and dries

You could just "mask" off the area you dont want painted and then scratch it up to look old.

Had a long look at the pics of the "brain tank" - the algae / mold / crud stains along the seams of the clear plastic tank really look as simple as very dark paint (real dark grey or brown) that's been dabbed on the outside using a sponging method.

Very likely just some acrylic paint, from what I saw in a couple of pics.

By the way, I think the scratched look to the tank is actually the bubbles inside rising, with a long exposure time on the picture - they're just leaving light trails on the film as they rise.
I don't believe the tank is actually scratched up, and I wondering if it were, would that actually deter from the overall effect of the prop? (after all, real glass wouldn't scratch easily)

You bring up a good point. I think those are bubbles, because if you look at the video you can see it looks pretty clear, except for the bubbles rising.

Okay! So maybe I need to grab some brown and black paint, and dab it onto a paper towel or something, the blotch it on?