Painting & Weathering an Orky Jet: Part 1 – Rust

My maternal grandparents had a small barn in their back yard. It had been around for my entire life… about 7 years… when I first dared to explore it a bit. It was actually much older than that. It may have dated back to the Ice Age, or even when T-Rex roamed the Earth. Maybe even as far back as the late 1930’s, if you can believe that. I wasn’t really clear on the exact timeline.

But it was old.

The barn was filled with all sorts of mysterious things. I was quite sure they must have been some sort of Mediaeval weaponry, or perhaps the tools used in building the Pyramids. They may have even been ordinary faming implements and other knickknacks that country folks seem to collect in case it might prove of future value. But my imagination suggested otherwise. And when you’re seven – imagination rules.

Whatever the stuff was, it was rusted. Everything had an orange look to it. As the end of the barn was open, everything was exposed to the elements.

As I got into the front, I noticed something else besides all that rust… spiders. Lots of them. And wasps too. Nests from both filled the rafters, the corners, the nooks, and crannies. While it seemed quite fun to look at from a distance, the closer I got, the less enthusiastic I was about my new-found bravery.

Of course, my mama had given me a stern warning about not stepping on rusty nails, as I might get something called “tetanus”… what ever that was. The more I looked things over, I began to wonder if “tetanus” was some sort of booby trap laid out for me by the spiders and wasps in a conspiratorial attempt to haul me into the bowels of the barn, never to be seen again.

I was able to ascertain all of this while still a good six or eight feet from actually entering the now formidable maw of this tetanus tinged monster habitat of a trap. And it occurred to me that perhaps it would be wise to retreat back into the main yard, up where the big pecan tree was with its relatively safe tire swing.

I hadn’t thought of that day in 50 years. But as I sat working on this plastic toy, trying to make it look like rust, the floodgates of memory opened up. I could feel the South Georgia heat as I thought about it, the sound of cicadas loud around me. And for a moment I was back there. A skinny kid with not a care in the world. Except for avoiding tetanus traps set by nefarious wasps and spiders.

This is why I model. It is a portal to memories that seem far more difficult to bring up the older I get. It’s also a respite from today, and the trials of living in a Groundhog Day world.

So anyway… here’s a video about making stuff look rusty.

No tetanus, spiders, or wasps were harmed in the process of making it.

(For what it’s worth, I also did another video about rust effects some time back. You may want to check that one out too.)

Paints Used