Rust Never Sleeps

I'm having fun planning the rusty finish on my tank engine, searching out photos, and thinking just how I can best approach the task. In my navy days, I spent hundreds of hours combating rust with scrapers, wire brushes, pneumatic tools, and lead based primer. Rust was the insidious enemy, that gradually ate away our ship! So it's with feelings of mischievous transgression that I conspire to rust my locomotive.

     This is not the best photo I've found (that one is fiercely copyrighted) but it has many of the qualities I'm looking for. I love the combination of white oxidation, remaining traces of paint, and lots of rust. I'm thinking I'll use a more orange rust, and add considerable blue to the black, thus setting up a complementary contrast that will make both colors blaze with life. Maybe I'll show evidence of recent attempts at restoration, such as polished bare-metal, or freshly painted patches. A spectrum of (bare metal / rusted metal / pure rust / paint clinging to rust / rust under paint / solid paint) seems like a good palate. Once I get finished filing the body shell, I'll start rusting!

     In other hobby news, my Fast Tracks order finally arrived! Looking forward to building my first turnout, but first things first. Rust never sleeps!