Achieving That Rustic Look on Styrene: Project by Vulcan

As the old saying goes, in regards to house-painting, “you don’t buy paint, you just rent it”.

As part of the module project, mentioned in the mail crane “how-to”, I built a small rural station. This post is not about the station but how I accomplished the “rustic” , peeling paint, look.

I used Evergreen Models styrene siding: Novelty, Item No. 4150. Before cutting out the individual wall pieces I use a fine tooth razor saw as a scribe, using a slight side to side motion, to add some woodgrain detail. The Evergreen styrene is smooth with no detail. In the second photo below I applied an ink/alcohol wash just to highlight the details for clarity.

Drawing pencil lines where I want nail holes, I use a scribe and add the nail holes. 2 per board



The parts are then painted ColorPlace (Walmart) Almond. This is enamel paint which is important to use because the following steps will not effect the paint. After the paint is dry I lightly sand to tone down the sheen and highlight the woodgrain texture.

Then using Gray acrylic (or whatever the final wall color will be)I brush paint the walls. Not worrying too much about the coverage.

When the gray is dry or at least not shiny wet, this doesn't take long at all, I go over it with a light ink/alcohol wash.

When the I/A wash is nearly dry I use a piece of cloth and dab lightly on the walls until the paint begins to pull from the wall.

The rusty nail holes were done using a fine paint brush and raw sienna acrylic paints.
Brushed on and almost immediately wiped off.

The final result.