I read this in a magazine. A guy was into aging model cars. He used baking soda in his paint to make his "rust" on the car textured. He thinned out the plastic with his exacto knife and cut different size jagged holes. Then he mixed his rust color paint and stirred baking soda in it and painted it on the thin parts and around the edges of the hole to simulate the texturing and rust eating through the car. It looked really great. I needed the base for Venom (Marvel figure) to be textured like the ground so I mixed up my paint and tried using the baking soda in it. It made an excellent texture that was uneven, grainy, and lumpy all mixed together. I'm really happy with it and Brian thought it was a good idea to post It wasn't that hard and I can see how it would make excellent rust or weathering.

For further tips on stuff to go along with the rust as far as model cars are concerned. He then dry brushed the car (including the windows) with the same paint he used for the rust without the baking soda. It made an consistent coating of age giving it a dusty and rusted appearance. The rust would have looked out of place on a shiny new car of course.

He also made dents in the car by holding it over a candle (NOT IN THE FLAME) and letting it slowly get warm being careful not to let it smoke or liquify by getting too hot.
Then he took an eraser and pressed it into the car to make dents in places that cars normal have dents such as side panels, driver doors, etc. He said not to use your finger because you will leave fingerprints in the warm plastic which would look pretty bad.

The magazine is out now in the stores if you want better details. I can't remember the name of it, and the car it uses is a common muscle car I see all the time on the shelf, but I can't even remember that at the moment. I'll recheck all of this stuff tomorrow for details in case anyone cares.

Ok, I got the info.

The current issue of Fine Scale Modeling and the car is a AMT/Ertl 1970 Chevelle SS.
I believe its red on the box.

Hey Jimmy. Concerning your question about melting and bending the plastic, Joey and myself made a custom wrecked NASCAR model not too long ago. The technique i used to get the plastic to bend and form in the right shape was that I would hold it over the flame in order to bend the skinnier parts of the body such as the front and rear bumpers. For the thicker sides of the car I felt it was neccessary to actually hold the car in the flame, but not for too long because it will obviously catch fire, and rather quickly too. I didn't worry about any burns and smoke stains that were left on the plastic, because it was completely covered by the paint, and some can even be simply washed off. When it was all done, it was a Terry Labonte car by the way, it had some sheet metal damage from where a tire had shred apart, and it also had a some what caved in roof from where he pulled an Earnhardt and rolled it. When it was done the body was quite impressive. However, I was unable to ever complete it because getting the caved in parts to conform to the chassis is a chore and may not exactlly work right. But if you can take the time to do a good job, the dents and such can really add to the "weathering" effect, and also a project like what I did with Terry's car. From what I've read from your posts it seems your a beginner much like myself. So if I can do it, surely anyone else can. Good luck.

Oops, sorry Jimmy. After re-reading your post I see now that you weren't ASKING anything about bending the bodies. Oh well, hope every else's enjoys my addition to the "Tips of the Day" thread.