How To Paint Grey Metal Parts Quick, Easy and Realistic

pickelhauben

pickelhauben

Well-known member
Hey Guys,
I am working on a couple of felts now and one helmet's parts were rusty.
So here is a quick and easy way of painting the parts so as not to make then look monochromatic.
To those who might be interested..
Paints used :
Light gray
Dark gray
Field green
I got the first 2 paints from my local O Reillys auto store.
The 1944 militaria paint I got on line.
It is German WW2 field paint but it works. for this project.
Black wash, I got the wash from my local hobby shop

.

Here are the original parts before treatment






Holding the paint can 6-8 inches away, Spray with the light gray and using paper towels immediately wipe off with med pressure
Start spraying off of object spraying past the object.
The idea is to go thin with the paint .
On the wappen I made a pass on the top half one way and came back covering the bottom.
Then as quick as you can wipe and dab the paint off.
This is a layering process.

Then use the dark gray the same method.
[url=https://matthewhiggins.smugmug.com/Pickelhaubes/i-Lg77RMq/A][/URL]

Then holding the green paint about 12 inches away lightly mist then dab with paper towel.


Then I hit the high lights with 600 grit sand paper then I hit it again lightly with the green.



Finally I dry brushed the highlights with the black wash..

The wash I used comes in a small squeeze bottle . I used several drops in a water bottle lid.
I dipped my brush in the wash and wiped almost all of it on a paper towel and just hit the highlights


Using this method matched the original rear spine perfectly !





 
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I see your pics.

You're "dangerous", lol.

It's amazing the transformation from rusty to looking like perfectly "mint" condition.

Best Wishes,

Alan
 
That does look fantastic! I will reference this in the future. Good work!

Quick story below; perhaps you may know why this occurred?

I had obtained a JzP spike, base and wappen on a helmet a few years back in similar rusty condition.

I had planned on trying to figure out some way of doing a painting job like you have shown, but I wanted to remove all of the rust first.

I dropped all three pieces into a small container full of evaporust and let it sit overnight. When I pulled them out the next day, they had either all been de-rusted back to the original parkerized finish, or the evaporust had coated them with a new finish that looked like just like the original parkerizing!

Either way, I was pretty astounded, and just dried them off and put them back on the helmet "as-is".

I showed it to a pal of mine who had seen it beforehand, and he was just as amazed and mystified as I was.

Any idea on why this weird chemical change might have happened?

Bryan.
 
I bumped this up to answer a forum member's question.
I left the rust on the plate.
In the pics the plate looks almost pristine but it actually looks weathered in person.
 
Unfortunately you can no longer get the dark gray ( the can in the middle) spray paint.
They changed the color and the formula.
I think that Tamiya German gray would be a good replacement.
The before and after pics do not quite catch the true color of the redo.
The picture with the plate , spike and rear spine are more true to life .
 
That's quite a transformation and certainly better than leaving them "as found" in rusted condition in my view.
 
Nice method to restore a rusty part! I am impressed with your results.

USMC-EOD mentioned Evaporust. When there is some original finish left on a part, I like to soak in Evaporust for one to four hours, checking the progress every 30 minutes. This lets the original finish remain and a phosphate type finish replace the rust. If you leave it in too long, it sometimes turns the metal black. I think it depends on the carbon content in the steel. Evaporust is primarily water, with 1% detergent and 15 to 20% chelating agent. The chelating agent allows the metal ions to create some neat little chemical bonding chains and removes oxides (rust) in the process. You need to oil the part afterwards or the new surface will rust.

Now my top secret method. When the part is totally rusted, I glass bead blast the part to bare metal. I then spray Testors (model car paint) Dull Coat Clear. This is a flat finish that slightly darkens the bare metal giving it the phosphate finish appearance. This was originally a lacquer product (fast dry time) but now I believe they have changed to enamel (longer dry time).
 
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