Advice needed please- Weathering my first steam loco

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Hello all. Once again, I am hoping to tap into the knowledge and experience of the forum members to assist me before taking on my first attempt at weathering my steam locos.

So, I am about to attempt to weather my first steam locomotive… I am intimidated. I have a fleet of about 25 well weathered diesel engines, and I am very comfortable doing those (primarily because I can easily remove the shell and have at it without compromising the integrity of the motor and chassis)… but steam locomotives are making me nervous… it drives me crazy having a complete roster of locos and rolling stock all nice and weathered, but I see my 3 steamers looking like toys right out of the box.

First, I model in N scale and I am not looking to go very heavy on these weathering projects, but I at least want them to look like they have seen some service. I was thinking about a light overcoat with my airbrush of engine black to eliminate the glossy look of plastic on the cab, boiler and tender. Then hitting the wheels and drive arms with some grimy black, dirt and rust paint mix. Following everything up with some light pastel chalks of rust, water deposit stains, and dirt and grime in the right spots to accent the details and the natural look of an engine in service…

What intimidates me is that the technique for steam is different from that for diesel. I was hoping to learn from the experience (and mistakes) of others. I have read many how to articles and watched videos. I have all the necessary equipment, tools, materials and mediums.

I am nervous about spraying the wheels and drive mechanisms. Do I set the pastels with a spray dullcote? Should I tape off anything to prevent it from getting gummed up? How and when to clean the wheels? What order do I do all this?

I have spent a pretty penny on all my steamers and they are all DCC. Any advise here would be appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you in advance. Cheers!

-John Collins

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I’m not at all familiar with N scale steam, but the boiler and cab assembly shouldn’t be all that difficult to remove from the chassis - likely one screw up through the steam chest, and another couple of screws underneath or at the back of the cab.
I’d guess that the tender would have one or two screws up through the floor, and perhaps a couple of extensions on the rear end of the bodyshell, which would clip into slots in the underbody…if so, take care in removing the body so as to not break them off.

You don’t mention the manufacturer of your locomotives, but they most likely would have come with a sheet showing an exploded view of both loco and tender, and that will aid you in determining how to dismantle it for painting.

Once you’re able to remove the body shells, they become as easy to paint as any diesel.

I model in HO, but paint all of my steam locomotives using several variations of black, which if left in that manner will leave them looking fairly new. It is, however, my first step in the weathering process. Since I’m modelling the late '30s, my steam isn’t all that dirty looking, but for steam in the diesel era, it’s easy enough to increase the amount of weathering.

If you plan on doing any alterations to your locos, such as adding or removing details, do so before painting, and when those changes have been made, wash the body shells using dish detergent in not-too-hot water, rinse them off thoroughly, then let them air dry, before painting, or, if you’re going to skip the painting, before weathering.

I generally use an airbrush for this type of painting and weathering, using Pollyscale paints (lots of it still on hand) and first spray the cab and tender with black paint, then pour some of the black paint into another bottle and add some white and/or grey to it - this will be for the boiler, representing paint which has faded somewhat due to its exposure to heat. You can use it on the cyl

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One thought is to pick up a cheap steam locomotive at a train show and practice.

Paul

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I second the cheap tyco or bachmann trainset engine to practice techniques on.

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Buy a cheapie first. I bought these two non-runners just to try painting ideas.

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The 4-8-4 was $20.00 and the 0-4-0 was $5.00 at train shows.

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Now they make good photo props.

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-Kevin

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Spraying the loco with dilluted grimy black paint is easy and will make a big difference. A few drops of alcool in the mix might be necessary if you are using acrylics dilluted with water. Using an old loco for practice is excellent advice. Unless you are repainting the entire loco, its better to keep the weathering light. Passenger steam locos were usually kept clean, if that’s the loco you are working on. The hardest aspect for me is painting the grey streaks around the sand dome and the whistle…

Simon

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most of the ‘weathering’ came from the front [or leading] edges … keep it light and you don’t have to take anything apart …

using a ‘practise’ loco is also a good idea …

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The biggest aspect of weathering is to understand WHY it looks like it does. I understand where / why oil, grease, soot, dirt are on a diesel locomotive, but I have no clue on steam either. General road grime goes without saying, but calcium streaks from water and other things unique to steam engines are beyond my understanding. I prefer to understand what I’m doing before I tackle something like that.

If you Google “weathering steam engines”, there appears to be quite a few decent tuitorials out there.

Mark.

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wvg_ca We can’t see google photos on this forum.

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found out, lol …

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Look for "Realistic weathering for steam locomotives " by John Pryke in the August 2002 issue of MR. The article was also included in some books, such as Detailing and Upgrading Steam Locomotives, not to mention some Information Station collections.

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Yes - Pryke’s article has a useful drawing showing where steam locomotives tend or tended to show just what kind of weathering result.

I guess my one suggestion in addition to that is, don’t overdo it. I think many steam locomotive models, even those that win contests, look over weathered to me. Even some of the derelict “city park” steamers that are rusting to death look more fresh than some of those models. Photos of Milwaukee Road steam locomotives in dead lines in the 1950s show that for the most part they were still genuinely black, for example. It’s usually easier to add more weathering than it is to undo what’s been done, and in many cases texture is what is needed as much as colors. The idea of practicing on a junker from a swap meet is a good one.

Dave Nelson

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Thank you everyone for all your advise. I will definitely do some more research and study some prototype photos. Looking now for a couple of practice steamers… then I think I’m just going to dive in and see how many mistakes I can make until I get some results that I like. Thanks!

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John,

I am guessing you will do just fine given that you have weathered 25 diesels. While the steam wear patterns and colors are different, the weathering concepts that that create a good weathering job are pretty much the same. There are lots of techniques, but I would recommend using an airbrush for most of it.

Practicing on some cheap stand-ins is a good idea. Don’t disassemble the running gear. Spray it while it is running very lightly and you will get a good effect. I would not do any extra coats of anything if you can avoid it – I might skip the light overcoat of black first and jump directly to the weathering coats. The John Pryke article is very good, take a look at it.

I start with a coat of rust and grime followed by a coat of light grey and then I tone it down with a control coat of black to kill any areas that too vivid. When the loco appears to be done, I take close up photos of the model with my cell and sleep on it before making the decision about whether to go back and fix something.

Below are a few of my efforts, the good the bad and the ugly: