Hello to all,
I am hoping to be able to get some answers from this one. A simple art department problem but one I certainly have had trouble solving of late.

We are currently looking at different ways of building a film set for our film in September. As director, I have been working with the Production Designer and Art Director to think of the best look for it, we have come to the conclusion of metal. We are building the walls of the set and we are wanting it to gave the metal look. The look specific I am looking for is that like walking down the corridors of a battlehsip, the metal walls with rivets holding it together.

My question is what material would be best to use as the "metal sheets", ply wood, MDF, particle board, preferably something light as the walls will be manipulated in a way that can mve them around to form different parts of the set. And with painting, what would work to give it this metal apearance, since I want the colour to be relatively dark as well.

Someone told me about painting the surface of smoothly sanded plywood wait for it to dry then paint the surface with turpentine and then paint over it with a lighter shade of grey. It will create the texture I am after. If anyone has done this it would be most helpful.

For some added help here, the set will be a very dimly lit set, so there won't be lots of detail a lot of shadows, but because of the tight nature of the set close up shots of the actors with the wider lenses will show the detail behind, I am not wanting it to look exact but enough so that in the conditions it will pass.

Thank you in advance for you help.

Michael Rogers
McRogson