I have a M3A1 Stuart and a M3A1 White Scout Car. Both are 1/35 and poorly constructed. I would like to have them be shelled and rusted. Any ideas on how to accomplish this?
TIA
Matt N.

It's very simple ....first you take the models and dip them in very rusty water and let them dry. Then you take your 12 guage shotgun , load it with #6 shot and blast them from about ten feet away........that will do it......

funny, but still off topic.

Sriously matt.....when I want something to look rusted out I use any brownish or red brown washes. Always remember that old rust is darker and new rust is more reddish orange. you can hylight certain places to make it look like the rust has been rained on and has dripped down the vehicle. As for shot up you can scatter parts around the vehicle leave burn marks etc. Look at my photos there is a burned out gun tractor that needs a little work yet and a tank that has hit a mine. All kidding aside good luck with your rebuild of those two vehicles...........Al

Thanks Al. Some very good work there.

Al there is a member who makes stunning destroyed German armour and has a few blogs on here, the problem is I cannot for the life of me remember his name. ! am hoping me posting this will refresh someone elses mind.

Scratch that it was Rob Ferreira site name scratchmod. Look up some of his work as he has a real knack of building destroyed vehicles, excellent even.

It is not as easy as drybrushing and washing a model with rust colors. To make an effective destroyed vehicle, you must plan it that way from the beginning and remove panels, rebuild inner supports, drill out holes, ect. to show where the vehicle came (or was blown) apart.

I suggest You take Gino's advice and check this out on how to paint rust. Rob from the site did the SBS.

HTH

Hey Gino There are probaly other ways to depict rust but I did do a rusted out abandoned Whippet with washes and drybrush and it didn"t come out bad at all. My painting on a scale of one to ten is about eight.......I still have a lot to go to catch up on some of you guys. I don't like to overpaint the faces on my figures because to me they then look painted and not more natural. I will check out other ways to do the rust maybe I will learn something new....thanks.........Al.....

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I think I may have found an easier way. I used a heat gun on low for the debris. Then I started on low with the model and up to hi for it, till I was satisfied it looked "destroyed". Took a can of grill paint to burned areas and am going to airbrush a little red brown in to simulate rust. I'll post some pics so you guys can see.
Matt N.

Your rust method is fine and works great for abandoned vehicles that are mostly intact. What I meant was there is more to making a destroyed vehicle than just rusting it up.




Sounds like all you did was melt it. If thats what you are looking for, great. Melted plastic doesn't look like a vehicle that has been destroyed in battle by shelling to me though.

Here is an example:



Or this. All the little holes are from shrapnel from artillery shells. Artillery shells shred metal, not melt it.

Thanks Gino. Now that I have melted it, I can go back over it with an Xacto knife and razor saw. This should add the "shredding" you mentioned.

Matt....on my shot up gun tractor I poked some of the holes through it with a hot nail. Some of them do not look so good cause I got lazy and didn't grind em out as well as I should have and so they look a little melted. Like I said before, got a little more work to do on that one. There are many ways to do these models and get the same good resuts but I have to agree that melting is OK maybe for dents but shell damage does not look like that. In the Seabees, I shot up a lot of tanks and stuff and they look more like the photos shown above. Lots of holes and busted off parts.Some shredding too...........Al

OK, let me explain. I don't want to model a shelled one at this point in time, but rather like it had happened only a couple of days ago.

The true joy of all this is.......it is entirely up to you. Do whatever makes you happy.........AL.....

The more details, the happier I am.