I’ve always been lousey at detail stuff on models. Never seem to fini***hem cause something more interesting comes along so they get stuck in the middle and are just plastic.
When I read your weathering topics ( which are all so awesome ) it never sticks in the old brain and I really don’t know where to start.
For instance, this diesel fuel facility, looks ok at the moment ( just squeezed it in, had to curve some tracks but it’s in ) but needs some life!!
For starters, I would “dirty up” the concrete pads with grease stains, oil stains, and lots of good ol’ dirt.
I’m just starting on one of my small engine terminals, and that’s the first thing I’ll do to the turntable pit and roundhouse floor. Then I’ll add mortar to the brick.
The easiest thing you could do is to give everything a light black India ink wash. That’d tone down the plastic sheen and make everything look a bit more realistic. Zap it with a light coat of dullcote before you add the wash.
In a more detailed vein, here’s what I’d recommend:
paint all the concrete. Concrete isn’t all the same color, nor does it discolor the same way from area to area, so mix it up. Using el-cheapo craft paints in a variety of “concretey” colors works great: I usually use a pallette with several buffs and light tans, and dip my #1 brush in them randomly, and apply the paint randomly.
paint the bricks. Plastic “brick color” looks like plastic. Considering you’ve got a J sitting next to the enginehouse, I’d suggest a darker, brownish brick color, instead of “brick red” (which we all know is a color that doesn’t really exist, right?). Using a Sharpie or paint pen, randomly paint some of the bricks black or DARK brown, but only sparingly.
paint the woodwork, and do it all in the same “boring” color. American rialroads are extremely frugal, and they almost all settled on one VERY cheap paint to slap onto most of their structures. The IC used box car red, the B&O used a yellowy buff, and lots of roads used a light gray. Pick one boring color you like the best, and apply it to anything wood, including windows & doors. (steel sash windows should be grimy black).
anything that’s supposed to be black, paint grimy black.
MAYBE add mortar to the brick structures. Frankly, I dopn’t like the effect, but many modelers do. Virtually all model brick buildings have mortar lines that are 2-3 times as large as they should be, meaning that you usually end up with 3" of mortar between bricks. Adding the mortar to a building gives it WAY too much white. If you do add mortar, do NOT use white! A meduim gray is much better for dark brick, and a black wash is best for light brick.
Follow Rays advice. The only exception I take is on mortor, I love the effect, but its a matter of opinion. You may also want to get some pastel chalk for weathering. Look for earthy colors and of course blacks and greys. They are great as they can be washed off if you get to heavy in one spot or the other.
Thanks for all that great advise, The era is kinda confusing! I want to make it look old and run down, but there’s a couple of SD40-2’s sitting in that shed so it’s reasonably new? The Class J is nice n shiney for the tourists, you get the idea.
I’ll give it a try and see what happens, I can always paint over and start again!!
