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I'm getting some new paints for a rust themed Necron army and I can get rust in a wash, layer or pigment. I want a lot of rust on each model so which one would be most effective? I'm new to painting so I might struggle with the pigments.
Edit: To clarify, I'm aiming for rust similar to this:

I've seen people drybrushing Ryza Rust over tank threads and also necron warriors - it looked like a really weathered necron.

This is a 15mm objective marker I did last year



The rust is a pigment wash and dead easy to do, this is just pigment and water, later it on and leave to dry, once dry take a cotton bud to it and take a fair bit of it off - over a matt layer it will stain nicely and as you can see stays in all the bits where the water settled anyway.

Another useful way is to gloss varnish then use an oil wash, also dead simple - oil paint in a dark brown, or a lighter one if you want dry rust, artists oils. Mix with white spirt and apply all over - when dry (leave it overnight at least) again the cotton bud to remove it, leave a few days to fully evaporate off then spray varnish over.


Key to both is either an airbrush of a rattle can varnish after to seal it, airbrush is better on a low pressure. Discovered the first time I used pigments it just blew them off.

Oils also good for rust streaks, start at the narrow end and brush upwards, where the brush leaves the model makes a round dot the rusts coming from.



Same objective before the pigment, can see the brown oil wash rust streaks.

Grab a cheap model or two and have a play, the technique looks hard but really it isn't

Rust is a really, really, broad term.

Different metals rust in different ways, at different rates and with different colours.

Just take a look at the snapshot of google images for rusty metal I've attached.

So firstly you need to have an idea of what look you're going for.

My go to recipe is dark brown base, lighter brown drybrush, then sponge on some bright orange before sponging on some silver, focusing on the edges where rust would be less likely to accumulate or to be worn away by friction.

The pigment wash method is IMO the best for most situations. With real rust the brightest orange tends to be patchy and have subtle variations in color. With drybrushing you only catch the edges where the least rust would accumulate (since edges wear down to bare metal more frequently), while painting solid colors tends to be too heavy and opaque. But with a wash you duplicate the nature of rust*: a surface layer of a bright orange on top of whatever the base material is, accumulating at its heaviest in low spots that don't see much wear. The one point of disagreement I have is that I prefer to use a colored wash with bright orange weathering powder in it (either GW sepia wash or dark brown oil paint). This tints the base metal color a brown shade to represent dark rust, and leaves patches of the bright orange to represent the lightest areas.

*This is a good idea for weathering in general, usually the more your painting method duplicates the way a thing functions in the real world the better it will look.

These are all good methods for rust, but to get a result like the one in those pictures they're way overthought.

Get a cheap sponge and cut it up, then paint the colours onto the sponge and dapple them over a black undercoat.

Start with a brown like Rhinox Brown or Dryad Bark, then move to an orange, then for the final brightest edges mix a small amount of yellow in with the orange

PossumCraft wrote:
These are all good methods for rust, but to get a result like the one in those pictures they're way overthought.

Get a cheap sponge and cut it up, then paint the colours onto the sponge and dapple them over a black undercoat.

Start with a brown like Rhinox Brown or Dryad Bark, then move to an orange, then for the final brightest edges mix a small amount of yellow in with the orange

This isn't going to look right, especially if you're putting the brightest colors on the edges. Rust will be bright orange in places where it doesn't rub off, edges see a lot of wear and are more likely to be bare metal. It's also not an easier alternative, at all. You're talking about doing multiple layers of paint, compared to a quick metalic color, a black wash to add shadows, and a rust pigment wash to add the rust effect. For example, this bunker roof took much less effort than the sponge method you're describing:

I'm talking about achieving the example the OP wants to mimic, not realism

 Necrons wrote:
I'm getting some new paints for a rust themed Necron army and I can get rust in a wash, layer or pigment. I want a lot of rust on each model so which one would be most effective? I'm new to painting so I might struggle with the pigments.
Edit: To clarify, I'm aiming for rust similar to this:

It appears to be one of those quick turn around commissions. im willing to bet its

black undercoat,
Scorched earth (forgot the new color name)
Then various orange browns stippled all over the place

+ bright oranges for the peaks.


it doesn't seem to require any sort of pigment powders.