Nurgle Rhino [WIP - Weathering Metals, Part 2]

As how sometimes things pan out in this hobby, the way the Nurgle Rhino Dozer/Destroyer blades were eventually painted is far removed from how I initially envisioned them to be. At first, I had primed the blades with a smooth almost glossy black primer in the expectation I would be laying on a metallic coat before weathering them. I soon realised this would unnecessarily waste a lot of metallic paint that would not see the light of day. So I did a 180 and instead applied a dark basecoat of Vallejo Rust Texture, followed by midtones of dry-brushed rust hues and ending with metallic pigments.

Rhino Dozer/Destroyer Blades, suitably weathered as per Papa Nurgle's requirements

For the metallic shine, a combination of AK Dark Steel Pigment and Fixer was used

If you are on a very tight budget, a simple graphite pencil can be used as an alternative to the AK Interactive Dark Steel Pigments. Yet another alternative would be graphite powder from art supply shops although truth be told these are kinda expensive too. For the Nurgle Rhino, I applied AK pigments on the sharp edges of its 'blade' using a cotton bud. And then, I fixed the pigments in place using, well, an enamel-based pigment fixer also by AK Interactive. The reasoning behind this step is that even rusted metal contains parts that face wear and tear hence the exposed metallic shine.

Colour Scheme for blades - dark rust base with fresh rust on grooves and metallic shine on edges

Fresh rust (bright orange hues) are concentrated on areas where water may pool

Because I had initially primed the blades with a glossy black primer (Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black), I had to improvise in order to reduce surface tension thus allowing the Vallejo Rust Texture to stick better. This I did by first applying a coat of Vallejo Polyurethane Matt Varnish. It's important to note that this varnish coating would've been unnecessary if I had applied a black matt primer such as Citadel Chaos Black. Meanwhile, other 'metal' parts of the vehicle worked on include the exhaust outlets on its upper hull, tow hooks, searchlight, poison gas tank, tri-skull emblem and chains.

Tow hooks on the rear were weathered in a similar way to the other 'metal' parts

Exhaust outlets on the upper hull, all four of them, were also weathered

Nurgle Rhino Searchlight, with the rusted metal bits all done up

At this stage of the build I am besiege by ambivalent feelings due primarily to a hobbyist's greatest (arguably so) bugbear - patience. I feel that more scale model kits are ruined by lack of patience rather than lack of skill, although there is a fine line between the two in miniature painting/modelling. As things stand, I'm pretty chuffed with my progress so far. However, the Nurgle Transport is still so far from the picture I have imagined that it's mind-blowingly infuriating. Let me explain ...

Nurgle Rhino (front end) work-in-progress: metals parts weathered and rusted

Bits weathered include the exhaust outlets at the upper hull and the tow hooks on the back

Nurgle Rhino (side hull, left) - metal parts include the poison gas tank and the tri-skull emblem

Nurgle Rhino (side hull, right) - metal part comprised only the chain on the hatch door

Photographs of the Nurgle Rhino as you see above lacks two key ingredients that will ratchet up the realism exponentially. One is subtle, the other not so much. The former are panel line washes while the latter, rust streaks. I'll be tackling panel lining in the upcoming post as well as the Nurgle Rhino's organic bits such as the skulls and poor Lucy i.e. the rotting head on the hull. Rust streaks will only come in after these are done. And now you can see why the Nurgle Rhino has a long way to go yet.