Czech Hedgehog - natural rusting

[Armortek]

Just stated to naturally rust a pair of hedgehogs.

Degreased them, put them in a bag in the sun and poured salted water over them.
After a couple of hours, can already see some signs of rust, but will check progress in a week.

After that the plan will be to lacquer to protect the surface rust and to stop them rusting further.

These two HH will be used in photoshoots going forwards .. and probably make an appearance at TankFest later this year.

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Alternatively, if you are in a hurry and you have some hydrogen peroxide left over from your kids Elephant Volcanos, you can try this:

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[Steve Stuart]

I used hydrogen peroxide to rust the tracks on my Mark IV. It works well on is own or with materials suggested in the video, it provides an immediate source of Oxygen for the rusting process so speeding it up. Available from all good chemists!
Steve

[Adrian Harris]

After all the discussion about the correct shade of Dunkelgelb and now we have bottle blonde tracks

Adrian.

[Steve Stuart]

Just gingering things up?
Steve

[Armortek]

State of the rusting after 5 days. Been spraying with salt water every weekday morning and then leaving wrapped in bag.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice a different bag - weather here was not very pleasant for a few days as we had heavy rains and wind .. so the original bag split.

[Phil Woollard]

Looks good

[Armortek]

And here we go - 1 week after we started, although we will leave them rusting for a bit longer as there is not a consistent rust across all surfaces.

hh3.jpg (151.54 KiB) Viewed 7907 times

hh4.jpg (102.82 KiB) Viewed 7907 times

To recap - the hedgehogs were degreased, placed in a bag and spayed with salted water on (almost) a daily basis. The bag was left outside so that the sun could warm it, although the weather has been pretty awful the last week.

To get faster oxidation, either increase the temp or use vinegar/ hydrogen peroxide etc.

We will post some last photos after we have lacqued the two parts.

[GlenStenhouse]

I'm late to the party but, Duzall gives excellent results when rusting metal. Nuetralise by washing off and then a matt varnish to protect.

[Charles A Stewart]

Good afternoon all.

Hope all is well with everybody, I thought, just out of interest to show and tell my Hedgehog. I built it a couple of years ago from a plan I found on the internet, measurements were a bit fuzzy but workable.

I made a couple, the one shown here and the other with stainless steel bolts. Regarding weathering, I left it outside

Cheers Charles
PS I hope I haven't caused any offence.