Corrugated Panel Techniques - Painting, Weathering, etc.

[ReadingBob]

How about sharing some techniques for finishing corrugated panels?  Most of the time we see this used for roofing.  Sometimes it's used on walls as well.  When I updated my Bailey's thread to cover the part where I painted/weathered the corrugated panels for the roof it occurred to me I have a question which I'll post down below.

I deviated from the instructions a bit on this one and opted to paint/weather the corrugated panels before attaching them to the roof.  This time I painted the panels with a mix of artist oil colors (Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber - basically a muddy, rust color mix) and while the paint was still wet, I applied rust color powders to the panels.  Oil paints give you a lot of working time so there's no need to rush. 


After the paint dried I glued the panels in place using 5 minute epoxy.  I would have used 3M Transfer Tape but it would have taken a little work to apply given this was a simple flat roof, there are some obstructions. 


Afterwards I hit the roof with a spray of Dullcoat and touched up any spots necessary with some more powders.  I'll add a picture of the completed roof at some point when I finish the build.

Okay, so all that's fine (at least to my eye) for a crusty, completely rust covered panels which is what I was going for here.  However when I don't want a roof that's covered with panels that are 100% rust I've never been completely happy with the colors I choose to represent the un-rusted, or raw, metal panels.  What do you all use for that?   

Feel free to share some pictures (model or prototype) or take about other related topics such as how the panels should be laid out/aligned, other colors the panels might be painted, etc.  When I'm trying to represent a roof that's only starting to rust I oft times refer to a picture of a real roof and copy that. 

Have at it! 

[Dave K.]

I've got Jason Jensen's clinic on this very topic in about an hour!

[Lynnb]

This the one Dave?
I'm just finishing the corrugated and followed the fsm directions for Bailey's , well for the most part .

[Dave K.]

Yep.Great clinic.

[bparrish]

My favorite way of doing this with super cheap flat primer. Not all are created a tend to go blue.  After that I cover the foil pretty heavily to resist rubbing off the high points during handling.




I then take a very shaken rattle can of flat black and shower down from about three feet above. It creates a little dotting that shadows the uniform gray and the dots are hardly visible from about two feet away. 


After that I cut and fit to the structure.


Then I go after the whole thing with chalks. Several colors are suitable. If you are modeling steel it tends to be various dark oranges. If iron it has a dark red brown color.


Also note that these sheets tend to rust in from the edges.




Hope this helps. 




See ya
Bob

[Bruce Oberleitner]

Folks,
About two years ago Bob Parrish demonstrated this technique while I was there during an open house.  In under 5 minutes, he had the most amazing corrugated metal roofing!  I suggest you all give this method a try as it is quick and easy and gives fabulous results

[EricQuebec]

Very Nice technic Bob's (Reading and Parish) I will try them all.
Here's my own technic :
I use paper corrugated metal from Northeastern scale.

• Prime them with grey flat primer
• Paint them with thin coat metallic grey
• Apply a clear wash of grimmy black
• Finally dab them with a stiff brush with Burnt sienna  and Raw Umber color

That's all.
Eric

[bob the builder]

I dipped these in Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black.

[ReadingBob]

Good info all.  I knew there'd be some great ideas floating around among this group.   

Here are a few pictures I snapped to use as a reference/inspiration when I don't plan on covering the panels in 100% rust colors.  It's that faded silver/grey/blue color I'm never quite satisfied with:

[GPdemayo]

Is that in Mt. Dora Bob? 

[ReadingBob]

Is that in Mt. Dora Bob? 

Yep.  That's exactly where that is.   

[Mark Dalrymple]

The photo below shows a roof I did using Campbells corrugated metal. 

I lay my sheets of foil out on my work bench.  At each end I attach a piece of painters tape to the bench and mark purlin widths - one just up from the bottom edge, and at 3' centres.  I lay a ruler along the foil, and using a blunt fine pointed compass, imprint indentations on every second undulation, being careful not to press too hard and create a hole.  When done the foil is scribed and snapped into 3' widths, and and turned over so the indentations appear as lead headed nails.  By varying the distance from the bottom edge of the foil to the first row of nails, and then mixing the cut sheets up when you have done a few, you get that nice random look of the sheet lengths being slightly different, but the rows of nails still line through.

In the case below I made a roof substructure.  This was covered in double sided tape.  I always make sure my tape joins are not on any hips or ridges - I want good fixing here.  When I attach the iron, I keep the top down slightly from the ridge, and slightly away from the hips.  This allows good fixing for the ridge capping.

To make the ridge capping I used aluminium foil which I smoothed out and then attached to double sided tape.  This was then cut into strips about 4mm wide.  I peel back one end and use painters tape to stick that end to my workbench, sticky side up.  I peel the rest off and likewise stick the other end down using painters tape.  I cut a piece of plastic rod to the desired length and carefully lay it down centrally on the foil, starting at one end and easing it down.  I cut the foil off a little past the end of the rod.  I then use a finger and thumb to meld the foil evenly around the rod a little.  I then carefully, starting at one end, lay the ridge capping along the center of the ridge of the roof substructure.  It should stick well to the double sided tape.  I then use a blunt large needle to meld the foil over the iron undulations.  I carried on in this manner doing the hips.

Painting is then done with the roof complete.  In this way there are no freshly cut edges to be touched up and minimal post painting handling.  I hit the roof with a grey primer rattle can.  If the roof is in place on the structure I have had good results by usind Dullcote as a primer.  In this way you can use a card to shild the structure, but a little over-spray is OK.  I then use a brush to paint on a metallic paint - usually gun metal grey.  I still have Floquil paints left.  I then brush on a red oxide or light green or grey - my three colours for 1930's modelling.  I find the gun metal gives the roof a texture which looks like rust just starting to bubble through.  I then dry brush to accentuate the ridges, hips and nails.  Finally I weather with chalks.  I use a pastel fixative rather than Dullcote - I find Dullcote dissolves the chalk.  For heavy rust I load a fine brush with chalk, and tap the brush hand with my other hand to distribute the chalk where I want it.  I then hold the roof so the surface with the chalk is flat, and use an eye dropper filled with isopropel alcohol to fix the chalk.  In this way layers can be built up.

Hope this is of some help.

[jerryrbeach]

Mark,


This is like attending a clinic on how to model corrugated roofing.


I have often felt the weakest part of using corrugated sheets when modeling a roof is the ridge caps.  I have never been satisfied with my caps so I only use corrugated sheets on roofs that do not have a peak for just that reason.  Your ridge caps are so realistic they look like they were done at the factory.  I also love the way you add the nail heads.  Simply outstanding modeling.  You just helped me improve my roofs by 1000%.  Thanks so much for the explanation and photo!! 

[NEMMRRC]

The first Campbell kit I ever built had some fast and easy instructions on how to deal with their corrugated metal roofing. This is a summary:

   
• Dullcote the metal.
• Paint with SP Lettering Grey.
• Weather with Rust.

The Campbell kit I built is the small shack in the foreground of the diorama pictured below:


Jaime

[Lynnb]

Some nice technique's , the Campbell technique looks pretty straightforward or at least until it comes time to adding just the right amount rust color.