Metal water tower roof

[FrankG]

I have a quick paint question.

I have a water tower that I'm working on for the top of a factory. I painted the roof a light aircraft grey and weathered it.

While the weathering came out perfect (unfortunately), the base color looks wrong. It looks too flat and the overall effect makes it look like weathered plastic....not metal.

So can any one suggest what paint or paint mix to use for old metal?

Maybe I can do a search on here.....someone might have asked this before.

 

[Urloony]

As you mentioned it has a flat sheen to it which really is what can add to a "plastic look." You could do a light airbrush of gloss or semi-gloss to add a little more sheen. Since you have already weathered it you may just want to dry-brush with a metalic paint like gun-metal or steel. Don't use silver or aluminum because you want a grungy metalic look not a bright metalic look.

 

[jon-monon]

I wish I had a better shot of the roof handy:

http://the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=6881&page=4&pp=5&highlight=blacksmith

The roof turned out to be one of the highlights of the model. It was my first metal roof. I didn't really know how to color or weather it so I just dived in and tried to order the layers more or less as mother nature did, and this is my recipe:

Silver paint (left over 80's grand am trim paint )
shades of brown craft paint dry brushed on in blobs and streaked down (old rust)
smaller shades of orange craft paint dry brushed on in blobs and streaked down (new rust)
A dark wash (black paint and water in a spray bottle)
Dullcoat

 

[spitfire]

That's how I do it too Jon! I find the so-called metallic silver paints really aren't all that shiny to begin with. I think it looks good to have a little of the original metal showing through the rust.

Val

 

[Blake]

I have been playing around with Polly Scale ATSF silver. It's great, you can mix in other Polly Scale colors to give you all kinds of effects. You mix black and a little blue and you get graphite, some rust and you get the look of bare metal that has started to rust. Great stuff, try it. You can also add gloss to bring up the shine.