The Girl and I went on a walk today, and our adventure took us to a park with crushed slate walks and an iron heavy river that happens to be running low. Seeing opportunity in the low state of the water, I gathered up some chunks of bark that had nice deposits from the receding waterline. I also took the time to gather some handfuls of crushed slate that had escaped the path proper.
The crushed slate is going to be used to add some variety to my selection of basing materials. I think the rust powder left behind on the pieces of bark will be good for adding rust effects to whatever needs it.
Using a sculpting tool helped get the rust off the bark with out taking off too much of the bark surface with it. The piece I scraped is roughly 1.5" square, and I got a nice little pile for my work. You can see the difference between the scraped bark and the one with rust still there.
I decided I needed to experiment with this rust powder right away, so I fished out one of my miscast industrial bases. I added some sand and crushed slate, then painted it up.
Then I added some of the rust powder. I used some acrylic floor wax (Future) to fix it in place, and while it was still wet I added a bit more powder. After the Future dried the powder was pretty much set. I pained the raised bits of the diamond plating and washed all the metal with custom rust colored wash. The outcome is pretty nice over all. I think it will take a couple tries to get process down. I have a few of these miscast bases; the product of a rushed mould. I'll kick out a few more and get it all worked out.
Stay tuned. Until then, cheers.
CJ
