OK
Had varying success with painting tow cables but would love to find out other techniques to achieve that often difficult goal of a realistic look.
Please share your favourite methods to achieve that goal…
Cheers
Mike
I paint mine brown ( I like pollyscale “dirt”) and then dab on a mixture of brown/black/rust pigments thinned with water. Sometimes I’ll do a final light brush of oily steel to finish.
I simply paint them a dark brown and then drybrush with steel. Then maybe stipple/spot the ends with base color paint.
If new cables, or modern armor, I’ll paint them steel and then wash with light tan for a dusty look.
ive had luck going to a fabric shop like joannas fabrics. they sell thin yarn in many diff. colors and it runs about 2/3 dollars for 36 feet
I took a good look at the ones on the M-1 tank the otherday, and they are a matte black, but are not painted; as I suspect they shouldn’t ever be. Good quality wire rope actually is very resistent to rust, but the clevis will rust. Most all I’ve seen in a humid area were always a dark grey (almost a metalic charcoal).
gary
I did notice that. On site yesterday, I had a good look at a road roller and the tow cable was a dulled steel. No rust at all could be seen. The vehicles are generally stored on site in a secured locaiton on big projects and garaged each night on smaller projects. So they do get a fair bit of exposure to the elements.
Mike
I can see a case being made for a modern cable not rusting so easily given the advance in metallurgy since the 40’s. But what about a cable on a Tiger or a Sherman?
From a purely engineering point of view, rusted cables would be a no-no, though surface rust may well be present.
I hit mine with dark grey primer, then red/brown followed by metalic silver as a high light
The reason that cables and other various lifting (and towing equipment) is not painted normally is for saftey reasons. Wire rope should be inspected everytime you use it for fraying and cracks on the shackles and clevises. A broken cable is an extremely dangerous thing, and capable of cutting a person in half. The steel used in the actual cables is of a very high nickel (almost a stainless steel), and is a little more resistent to rust. But it will rust. If I were lifting the turret on a tank with a rusted cable; that would be the end of the project. It can be that dangerous. The Germans knew this just as well as the Allies, and I’m certain they checked them often.
gary
High nickel steels were alive and well in WWII. Even stainless steel was used on a regular basis. What WWII brought us was the infancey of metals to take high heats and was the start of the so called aircraft grades of metals. And also was the refinment of the four thousand series of steels that we rely on so much even to this day (4140, 4130, 4150).
gary
No visible rust for sure. Even slightly rusty tow/ lifiting cables, as has been mentioned, are dangerous things. I tend to use a dark metallic colour (Citadel Chainmail or Bolt-gun metal are good) washed with black ink. Insides of towing eyes a contrasting dark metallic colour.
I then cement them in place on the model before weathering, and whatever dust etc gets on them, gets on them, just as it would on the real thing. Here are some typical examples:
Dragon 1/35 Nashorn:
Dragon 1/35 Pz. IV ausf. D:
Airfix 1/32 Crusader:
Cheers,
Chris.
IMO, rust is over-rated in scale modeling…
Quite so. A classic mistake in uber-weathering, often as a result of taking gate guardians or museum exhibits as typical of operational equipment. Well-maintained equipment doesn’t get rusty, and well-maintained equipment is less likely to break down in action.
Any member of my Company with rust on his vehicle or equipment could have expected a serious b*llocking from me - if my CSM hadn’t got there first - and they knew it!
Cheers,
Chris.
Unless im mistaken the tow cables were made of steel not stainless. As they wernt primered in anyway from the factory. I would give them about 3-4 days outside in any weather to start to show signs of surface rust.
I paint my armor cables flat black and then dry brush them with citadel Boltgun metal.
…Guy
They are made of a high grade of steel, and yes they will rust in do time. But as a rule they don’t. Nickel is rust resistent, and most cables are “coated”. The shackles and clevises on the ends will not hold paint vey well if used to pick somekind of heavy weight. When they stretch the paint peels off them (I wouldn’t trust a painted on anyway). I’ve seen cables on M41’s that had no rust on them, and that was in Asia.
gary
We have an Abrams in our workshop at the moment, so i went and had a look. The cable seems to be a type of stainless steel with either black paint over it or maybe it is some sort of plastic coating, but i didn’t see any rust… The towing eyes are painted in the snad colour camo and didn’t have much rust either, just some spots of minor surface rust.
Wish our company rules allowed us to take pics…[sigh][
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Boomer…
No rust on my cables as a matter of choice based on many of the things mentioned already about wire cables. I paint mine with a basecoat of Model Master Non-Buffing Metalizer Gunmetal and then will apply a very light dry-brushing of Steel to impart a metallic look/feel.
I’ve seen a few cables that had the braids teflon coated (a very, very thin coating). Stainless steel can be colored with a phosfate treatment (I think it’s on the order of parkerizing but don’t quote me on this).
gary
Yes, that is exactly what it was, a teflon coating. Where it had chipped off the wire rope beneath was spotless. No rust at all.
Boomer…