How to Make Warhammer 40k Rusted Steel Pipes

Nothing gives a Warhammer 40k building more character than some rusted pipes running along the sides of it. Adding rusted pipes is easy once you know how to do it. After all, the cool factor in our terrain building escapades isn’t how fast we do it, it’s how lifelike it looks.

It’s a strange thing when you stop to think about it, us humans and our fascination with real life things becoming miniature and “realistic” looking. A realistic mountain made with styrofoam is still only a mountain made from styrofoam. No matter how “realistic” it looks, it’ll always be a fake mini mountain. That being said, let’s cut with the mumbo jumbo and get building.

Materials:
-paint brush
-plastic straws
PAINTS
-bolt metal gun (silver gray)
-mithril silver
-blood red
-red gore
-terracotta
-scorched brown
-And a nice cup of hot chocolate mmmmm…

Step 1 Cut plastic straws (yes the pipes are really straws. You didn’t think they were steel did you?)

You can buy a pack of like a hundred of these at any grocery store for cheap. A dollar or so. If you search a little further you may even find some larger sized straws. This would make for even more interesting terrain because you’ll then have different sizes of piping you could use. For now we’ll stick with the regular straws.

Step 2 Glue pipes to structure.

Simply cut them to size then glue them to the sides of your building with PVA glue (white glue). I’m a fan of putting two or more together. It’s more durable and is more aesthetically pleasing. I’ll use my fuel tank as an example.

Step 3 base coat the pipes

Next, base coat the pipes using acrylic black. Make sure the glue is dried first or you’ll have a stick mess.

Step 4 paint the layers of rust

This is where the magic happens. First you’ll want to begin by coating the pipes with a blood red or red gore. Next, dry brush a layer of terracotta or scorched brown over top. Finally, lightly dry brush a layer of bolt metal gun or mithril silver to give the steel look. You may notice in the photo below that there’s an electrical meter at the bottom of the conduit piping. That’s made with foam board.

Step 5 Paint rust onto building

Have you ever seen an old building with ancient piping running alongside it? Have you ever noticed that there’s rust on the building itself as well? This step is the best part of adding rusted pipes.

Simply paint below the pipes a blend of blood red and scorched brown like so:

And there you have it. Making rusted steel pipes for a Warhammer 40k building. Brilliant!