It's already been mentioned, but Drybrushing is the way to go - either with a brush or piece of sponge (or whatever you have laying around, old clothes, etc.). Most know this, and the name is pretty obvious - but drybrushing describes the technique of texturing with paint that is already "almost dry" (you have so little on your applicator that it's almost "dry"). It's a fun thing to do and the results are fantastic.
- Get a little paint on your sponge (my applicator of choice) and dab it off on a piece of scrap. Keep dabbing until you almost have no piant left on the applicator. Seriously.
- Now dab/streak/scrub very light amounts of this on your prop. Try to localize. Not much will be there at first, so it's fine to go back over the area a bit at a time - less is more. Go too far/heavy and you've lost the point of drybrushing (providing accents). If you think "one more coat/application will do it", STOP. Come back to it in a couple of days if you really have to.
- A lot of it is the "power of suggestion". Drybrush a little rust color in places on your stuff and peoples' minds will tell them "it's definitely rust". Spectators won't necessarily be scrutinizing your rust detail up close.
- Colorwise, since these props are meant to be seen in darker environments, I go for brighter rust colors (reds leaning to almost orange). Rust too dark disappears or looks more like dirt.
- Drybrushing is easy to fix, too. If you think you put too much on, you can lightly drybrush a little of the base coat (like black in this case) over the rust, or recover the whole thing and start over. Piece of cake.
-Try it! Get crazy - I layered different drybrushings of progressively lighter rust colors and they looked great, but some of that detail was fairly lost in the dim light. Still looked really good...
