Thread: Painting Faux Metal - Steampunk

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Here's a way to paint anything to make it look like metal. Then, how to make it look like grimy old metal. After a while I won't be able to edit this post with corrections or lessons learned so if you want the latest info, please go directly to my album: Halloween Forum - Terra's Album: Tutorial: Painting Faux Metal




This technique can be done on anything you need to look like metal. If you need to disguise the original texture you will need some monster mud.

Materials needed:

Optional: Monster Mud tinted black or rust (or both)
Silver latex paint (I used Ralph Lauren)
Black paint
Raw sienna paint (rust color)
Optional Rivets: White and black airbrush paint and stencil with hole in it

Equipment:

3" brush
1 1/2" brush
Optional: air brush
Optional: paint roller







For painting my tank, I wanted to disguise that it is made of plywood. So, I made up some monster mud using black paint. Then I rolled it on thick.






You can see in this picture the texture that was left behind from rolling it on with a paint roller. It is starting to look like grimy old metal.






Using the 3" paint brush, apply silver paint in downward strokes. Cover the black well but leave some of the black showing beneath.






Dip your 1 1/2" brush into the raw sienna paint and randomly jab in some accents. Focus on places where you think rust will have formed (joints, seams) and pull the paint down a little. Then, make a wash of the same raw sienna paint and starting at the top, dab it on and pull it down.

In the picture you can see that there seems to be two different rust colors. It's actually one but the darker color is straight raw sienna and the lighter ones were thinned a bit with water and/or white paint. Just try to switch a bit of the tones so you get a more organic look.







Dip your 1 1/2" brush into the black paint and jab in additional accents. Then, using the 3" brush, dry brush the black in random sections to help make it look like old metal. Finally, make a wash of the black paint and again starting at the top dab it on and pull it down.

I came back with the raw sienna wash to get a layer of the rust over some of the black. I then did another wash of black. I do that to really add an old, ancient look to it. You don't have to keep going over it like I do. Just keep at it until you like the look (I can go overboard).








Painting rivets:
If you have an air brush, go to this link and follow the excellent tutorial at the 6:00 time stamp: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpSqCr8P1Hs"]YouTube - Basic Airbrushing Techniques[/ame]

If you don't have an airbrush you can try the technique with a regular brush. It should still look pretty good. Basically the airbrush technique is:

1. Paint a fuzzy white bottom half-circle.
2. Paint a fuzzy black top half-circle.
3. Place stencil with a hole in it in the center of that and paint white.
4. With stencil still in place, paint bottom half a fuzzy black.
5. With stencil still in place, paint top half a fuzzy white.


Continued.....

This was a wood crate that I didn't bother doing the monster mud step but I think it still looks pretty good.








I did the fog machine a little different. It was already black and metal so I just dry brushed it with the silver paint. Then I made a batch of monster mud tinted with the raw sienna and with a small foam roller I randomly hit it with the mm. That gave it a nice rusty-looking depth. Finished it off a little black dry brushing, quick raw sienna wash and rivets. Looks steampunkish huh?







This was a green rotating Christmas tree stand. I needed to really change the texture so I used the raw sienna mm heavy on it, then dry brushed the silver and added the black accents. So, you can do different orders of paint layers and different tinted colored mm and get different results. It's quite fun actually to see what you end up with

Damn that looks sweet! Nice tutorial, Terra! I'll bet this stuff looks even cooler in person!!

Terra, you should change your name to Terra, Queen of the paint brush! That came out great! Thanks for sharing. I'm always having problems getting the right look with paint.

wow! great stuff. I love the fogger, sweet idea. Thanks

OHHHH Terra you are the BEST! Thank you for putting this up... Told ya I was just waiting for it.. Now time to get to work!
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!

Thanks so much everybody. Kammo, I want to see pictures when you are done

I would swear that tree stand is metal. Before I read what it was, I thought it was some sort of metal flood light. Really nice work. Thanks for the tips.

I really love the technique for painting the rivets. Gives a great 3D effect!
I also like the idea of using mm to give texture. So many people overlook the texture of rusted metal.

Great work once again Terra!

OH will do Terra, I gotta hit the store and get the rust color before I can get to it. But I will send you some shots when done.
I learned how to do true flames from Ed Hubbs. Very good tutorials on his stuff.
Here is my first job after his tutorial. Its the cover for my boat motor.