Garden Railway Forum

Can anyone give me some advice on adding a rust finish to a quarry wagon?

I think I have read that people use iron powder of some sort and vinegar/copper sulfate. What exact products do you use and how do you apply it?

Has anyone used the Modern Masters metal effects rust kit? If so, is it any good?

I used Scenic Rust on my tipplers, but there are cheaper methods which I'm sure others will outline

https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... agons.html


Rik

Thanks very much for your reply.

That is another product that I hadn't seen before. The instructions for the Slater's wagon (that I will be using it on) mention 'Instant Rust' and I have seen another product called 'Metal Effect Rust Finish'. I might have to have a play with them to see which ones work best, although I'm guessing that they are somewhat similar.

If you look through Andrew's thread, he has a very effective method of producing rust using iron powder and copper sulphate.
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... st#p169100

Just catching up here...

I still feel like I've got a lot to learn re adding rust in this way, I'm not 100% happy with the results yet.

I'd suggest getting the finest iron filings possible, and experimenting a bit - copper suplhate seems to produce lots of very orange rust pretty quickly, wheras spraying with vinegar makes a browny (sometimes almost black) rust, which takes longer to appear. I keep meaning to find out whether changing the strength of the copper suplphate solution makes a difference. One thing I have discovered it that a dilute wash of paint afterwards (eg too represent coak dust in the rusrty interior of a steel-bodied wagon) seems to work quite well.

Cheers,

Andrew.

PS I'd also suggest reading up on the safe disposal of copper sulphate - it turns oput it's nasty stuff, you can't just tip it down the sink ...

I have bought some of this to try.

I have no idea how this is going to go!!

Good luck - let us know how you get on!

Yes, it will be interesting, although at a guess its just fancy packaging for Andrew's method. By the looks of it, the LH bottle is just a primer, the centre one is iron powder and and the RH bottle is Copper Sulphate ( The blue colour is the dead giveaway! ).

That is true.

Although the ‘Iron’ bottle is a paint, not iron filings. It’s an expensive way to do it, but hopefully convenient.

The first attempt has shown some promise but needs some work. I’ll post a picture later.