Salt & Hairspray Weathering Tutorial

For the past year or so, I've seen a lot more people talk about using salt & hairspray to achieve a weathered/aged look for their vehicles - since I had a whole mess o' Ork vehicles waiting to be painted for my Freebootas, I decided to give it a shot.

To start with, you paint your model with what you want the "weathered" color to be (a rust color, in my case):

I used a can of Krylon "Ruddy Brown" primer - I think it was around $4 at Wal-Mart.  The label says it's for "Metal - Wood - Wicker - More".  Unfortunately it doesn't say anything specifically about whether or not it's safe for plastic.  I've never had a problem with Krylon in the past, but to be sure, I grabbed a model that I wasn't particularly attached to (a Warbuggy I got in a Craigslist lot):

After spraying it & waiting for it to dry, I didn't notice any adverse effects - so I grabbed the rest of my models and let 'er rip:

I sprayed them from several angles to get good coverage:

After they dried, I was ready for the next step:

This was the cheapest can of hairspray I could find - I actually had to dig around to find a can that wasn't four dollars or more.  I finally found this one at the store on the very bottom shelf, in the corner, for 97 cents.

Then I grabbed some salt:

This was free, 'cause I grabbed it out of our pantry.  IMPORTANT: YOU MUST USE KOSHER SALT FOR THIS TECHNIQUE.   Regular table salt (AKA "iodized" salt) will not work.  Why?  Well, if you look at "iodized" salt under a magnifying glass, it looks like this:

...it's almost a perfect cube.  The shape of the salt is going to determine the pattern of the weathering - unless you live in a world where rust spots form in perfect geometric squares, it's gonna look terrible if you use iodized salt.

This is what "kosher" salt looks like:

...it's irregular, random-sized, broken pieces (this is due to how it's manufactured).  That's what we want.

I dumped some of the salt into a bowl to make it easier to work with:

Then I sprayed my models with the hairspray:

...and sprinkled the salt over them:

I worked in sections - I would do the tops of the models first, then after that dried, I did the sides, etc.

Then I gave the models a coat of GW Chaos Black:

...about this time, I heard something going on outside my patio: lawnmowers!  Crap!  The gardeners for my complex had come to mow the grass - threatening to get grass clippings all over my wet models!  I stood by until I was pretty sure the first coat of black had dried, then I rounded up the models and stashed them in my kitchen:

Later that afternoon after the gardeners had left, I took the models outside and finished spraying them black.  Again, I sprayed them from several angles to get complete coverage:

After the paint had completely dried, I took the models inside, held them under lukewarm water, and scrubbed the salt off with an old toothbrush:

It will take a while for the salt to come off - it seems to be easier once the model gets thoroughly "saturated" with water.  (I have a suspicion that submerging the whole model in a bucket of lukewarm water would be effective, but I wasn't willing to try it).

Here's the result after the salt is scrubbed off:

(click to embiggen)

...you can see that the rust-colored paint shows through where the salt was covering the model, leaving a "flaky rust" effect.

Some random thoughts on the process:

-It uses a lot of paint - I used two cans of primer & two cans of Chaos Black (of course, I did five Battlewagons, three Trukks, five bikers, three Deffkoptas & a Warbuggy).

-Getting all the salt off can be a pain - I scrubbed until I thought it was all off, let the model air dry, then had to go back again to get some spots I missed, and to get rid of the white, salty "film" that was left in some spots.

I wish I had used more salt - I read through several tutorials on the Internet beforehand, and a common mistake on the first attempt was using way too much salt, so I used it sparingly.  Unfortunately, I think I underestimated how much salt fell off while I was turning the model during painting, as well as their unscheduled trip back into the house, even with the hairspray holding it on.  There was one model where I was afraid that I used way too much salt, and it came out the best out of all of them.

-This is not a "one-step" solution to weathering; the model is going to need some traditional weathering done before I wam completely happy with it.

-This method can be kind of rough on your models - three or four of my vehicles needs parts re-attached that broke off in the scrubbing.

So would I do it again?  Probably, although this method is usually presented as a time-saving method, and if you're doing seventeen vehicles at once, it still takes a lot of time - pretty much my entire day off...

Armorcast Cinematic Effects

...one item I became aware of a while ago were the Cinematic Effects from Armorcast.  Basically, these are sculpted muzzle flashes, smoke plumes, etc., that make your model's wargear look like it's actually functioning.  While it's kind of a neat idea, I wasn't really sold on them because 1.) the larger effects can get kinda pricey, and 2.) I'm an obsessive completest - if I started buying these things and liked 'em, I wouldn't stop until every model in all of my armies had them, and every single one of my models would have fifty dollars worth of accessories attached. :-)

But, one of the units I got in a Craigslist lot was an old unit of metal Stormboyz - and the models were boring.  I really liked the look of the ScrapTech Jump Rocket Blast, and thought it might be a good way to spice up the appearance of the models.  One of the first stops I made in the Adepticon dealer room was the Armorcast booth - I had written down the SKU number and asked for them.  "Sold out", they told me,  "we brought a dozen of 'em, and one guy came and cleaned us out".  That bummed me out, but when I got home I ordered them off the web site and had them a few day later:

As I said, they're kinda pricey ($10.00 per three-pack), but they do look really cool - I don't know how the sculptor was able to get such an "organic" look to these, but they nailed it.

Of course these all needed to be pinned:

I waited until after I had the rocket blasts mounted to attach the models to their bases, since the blasts are long enough that if I mounted the models to their bases flat-footed, they would sit funny.

Last of the Nobz

I got the last of my Freeboota Nobz finished the other day:

To be honest, these really felt like a chore by the time I was finished - partially because they're not the Elites, so I wasn't as inclined to do anything special with 'em, and partially because they are Orks #50 - 60 that I've painted, and I'm just tired.  The good news: all that's left are a unit of Stormboyz & the HQ models, then I can start on the vehicles!

Ork Boyz w/ Big Shootas

I finished up a pair of Ork Boyz with Big Shootas for my Freebootas the other day:

I gave them Imperial Arquebuses from Freeboota Miniatures (appropriate, no?) for their Big Shootas.  Since these models were originally 'Eavy Weapons Boyz, they had a big "socket" molded on the front of the torso for the originally included machine gun to snap into.  I had to disguise this somehow, so I used some barrels from a Fantasy Ogre Kingdoms sprue.  I figure it can represent a powder keg, and I think it works pretty well with the backpack...

Wartrukk Conversion

...so one of the models I got in a Craigslist lot is the Ork Wartrukk:

I don't know when the above model came out - second edition?  Third?  Before I started playing 40K, anyway.  I've also never been entirely clear if this is an old unit that's no longer supported by the current codex, or if it's the previous incarnation of the current Trukk.  Regardless, the model sucks.  It's extremely boring, and the scale is all wrong.  You can see that I added some Freeboota touches with my Green Stuff press molds and a Grot rigger, but that was about it so far.  I decided the model needed some more attention - since my other Trukks are going to be running Wreckin' Balls & Boarding Planks, I decided to see if I could scratchbuild these to make this model a bit more interesting.

I started with the Wreckin' Ball.  I took some wooden balls I had picked up at the craft store at some point:

I randomly drilled some holes in it with my pin vise:

...then I cut the tips off of a handful of toothpicks:

...and glued them into the holes.

Next, I took a sprue of chains from a Reaper Razig weapon pack:

...and added one to the Wreckin' Ball:

Next, I need to build a mount for the Wreckin' Ball.  I took an assortment of styrene rods, plasticard, my hobby saw, mitre box & tubing cutter, and just started playing with different shapes & lengths until I got something I liked:

 Then I mounted the Wreckin' Ball to it:

Then I punched out some rivets and added them to the mount:

I added some more chains around the "spool" and mounted the whole thing in the bed of the Wartrukk:

Next, I started on the boarding plank.  I actually didn't have any craft sticks, so I took these wooded squares:

These also came from the craft store.  They're very brittle, so I just scored them with my hobby knife and snapped them off to make planks:

Then I cut two lengths of styrene "I-beam" and glued the planks across them in a haphazard fashion:

Rivets were added:

The ends were closed with plasticard:

Some "hooks" from a fantasy Chaos banner were added:

Next, a mount was made from styrene:

...and it was mounted in the bed of the Wartrukk:

(Even though the new Trukk models have a plank on each side, I thought this model would look too cluttered if I added another one on the other side, so I decided to leave it at that.  if a rules lawyer want to argue about it, I'll just say it's on a swivel).

After looking at it, I decided it needed a bit more detail, so I added some "hand cranks" for the Wreckin' Ball assembly:

A few other touches - I gave the driver a pirate hat (he is a Freeboota, after all):

(For some reason, the pirate hat with the sunglasses cracks me up).

I've also been meaning to re-purpose one of these sprues from all the Reaper bits I've been using:

It turns out it's the perfect size to use as a bumper for this model:

...and that's about it - overall I'm really pleased with how it came out - it went from looking terrible to being an interesting model.  I considered picking up a cheap toy car in a much larger scale to give it "monster truck" -style wheels and scale it up a bit closer to the current Trukk model, but I think that would be a ton of work to make it look right... maybe if I see something fitting next time I'm at the dollar store I'll give it a shot.