Garden Railway Forum

built this water tower on Friday evening its been spayed to look rusty and old .I used lots of different colour's of red orange etc to get the rust look I also added tea in to the wet paint for texture then layered more paint over the top.by accident I picked up car under body paint rather than black normal spray paint. its horid stuff to spray on but gives a wonderful textured effect

Tea???? No tea drinkers in our household so I have no experience. If that is what makes the rustlike texture on your tank then it seems to work, if not, you can always pour hot water over it and enjoy!

For rust, you could use iron filings, they will quickly rust and give a great patina as they do so

You don't hang around Jim! Never thought of using tea for a cruddy effect and we drink plenty of it here. I really must start a building to give a sense of scale to my track and stock.
PS iron filings are good, get tubs on Ebay quite cheaply and if careful should last forever ish

Sand and talcum powder work as well for 'crud'.

I like the tower as well, I want one on my line when I can be arsed to build it.

Great building - I also need to get my finger out and build one!

Hello, I don't really think you need to worry too much about proper looking rust. As 7/8ths scale is viewed at about 30 feet on average, a darkish stain....paint! can pass as rust! I have noticed passing corrugated tin buildings gone rusty the above applies...you do not see the rust detail...just the stain!

Just love the way you go about your builds, love this Tower, need to get my track down and get some buildings sorted myself, if i can get the scale correct for my 32mm layout.