Dirtying (silver) car roofs... ? PLUS covered hopper walkways...?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Okay, I know that this is an extremely general question… but…

When you get a nice shiney new model boxcar out of the box… how much weathering do you automatically think of applying to the roof?

I know that it depends in part on the weathering of the rest of the car…

So, how about broad examples…

  1. new / clean car
  2. not so new / reasonably clean
  3. older but well maintained
  4. older not so well maintained
  5. working in a mucky (steal/coal) environment

Do you always use a dullcoat to take the model shine off the roof?

What’s best to tone down the silver toward “galvanised grey”? I’m assuming that the silver represents new galvanised panels… (am I correct)?

On older cars do you ever mask off a panel or two to represent new / replaced panels.

I saw an article in MRR and some athearn cars appear to come with overspray of the car side colour around the roof edges… is this common and would you add it to a car? Is this “era specific”?

Any tips for other roof colours?

TIA

[8D]

2

Personaly, I like to rub in graphite, to simulate dirty metal that was originaly silver, as it darkens but still shines, I think this works real well for oil / grease streaks because the shine is still there but different from the base material.

For making it dirtier, I use a very dilute black wash, and will just hit different spots.

For oil runs, I’ll first use the graphite on the in the imedeate area to look like it’s oil that been wiped up previously, then holding the spot horazontal, I put a small drop of diluted black wash, then slowly tip the part over until it runs of in the dirrection of gravity that the finished part would naturaly be. Done right you can make several layers, that sometime overlap sometimes not overlap so it looks like it’s an ongoing problem.

A very dilute black wash, just enough to darken recesses, but, not take away all the shine, will do a good older but well maintained. The more dilute, the wash and the more the original silver comes theough the newer and better maintained it is.

Do the above, but darker wash to take away more shine, with a spot of rust here and there, will make it look like it less maintained - less shine and the more rust, the less maintained it is - you might even add a patch or two that has been replaced with new material.

In a mucky enviroment, to some extent the more grime on the steel, the more protection it has from corrosion, but your probably going to see scratches, dents, and other things of that order, and when that happens your going to see bear metal, where the grime and perhaps even galvanaztion was taken off - and if not taken care of later on rust .

3

I use a wash of alcohol and black leather dye.

4

Dave,

Not painting the galvanized roofs of box cars is era specific. It started about 1985 and continues today. It’s a way to save some money on paint since the galvanized metal suppposedly doesn’t need protection. The overspray is correct - they ran the cars through the paint shop and whatever landed on the roof stayed there. There was no attempt made to paint the roof.

I have seen a lot of cases where cars have had new roof panels installed next to existing roof panels. This was because of either damage or, in some of the earlier cars, due to galvanic interactions between different metals. The bare roofs do weather (and rust) quite badly even when the rest of the car doesn’t look bad. The graphite suggestion is a good way to remove the shiny look. Many of these cars will develop rust around all the raised panel lines and connections and some rust will streak down the sides. The best thing to do is find as many images of tops of cars as possible as there is really a wide variation in how they weather.

5

I’ve used acrylic paints and am happy with them

I experimented and eventually was able to simulate colors for rust, dust, and soot on silver roofs for freight cars.

Trial and error was the method.

6

Here are a few of my weathered roofs. I did some as a rust bucket and some as surface rust, and etc. I made it look like some roof panels were replaced as well. I normally weather them, and then dullcote them. Just look at some rust and you will see a mix of browns, blacks, reds. Thats what I use for my colors. I am sure if you dullcote the roof, it won’t have a shine but will still look factory. Not like a car that has been on the rails for awhile. Take a look, maybe this will help…

7

After attending a series of free weathering clinics at my LHS, I’ve become a big fan of weathering powders. These are like chalks, but ground finer. First, I Dul-Cote the whole model (shell only, not moving parts, of course) and then I apply the powders. A little goes a long way. I’ve got rust and black powders, which work very well, and a chalky-white which is much more subtle. If I mess up, I can just wash the powder off and start again. Once I’m happy with the weathering, I give it another hit of Dul-Cote to seal the powder on.

8

Thanks all! [:D]

Roby P thanks especially![:-,] That’s about what the car roofs I’ve already done look like. [(-D]

Isn’t it sickening when someone gets smug! [:-,]

Seriously the question was/is real and I’m just releaved as heck that i seem to be going the right way. [:-^]

Next question… what do you do about the walkways on Athearn covered hoppers?

TIA

[8D]

9

These are not Athrean, but Lifelike covered hoppers. I assume the walkways are produced in a similar way.

These got a coat of flat black spray paint underneath.

For the top; First I spray the walkways with dullcote. After that is all dry I coat the surface with rubbing alcohol, then brush on a black wash of 50/50 water and acryllic. Sometimes I dab on a little rust colored wash before it all drys.

Anybody notice my foul up on this one?

10

As mentioned overspray is somewhat era specific. Not only di the RRs not paint the roofs to safe money but they don’t bother to mask off the roofs either. Weathering them is something that just takes some practice. Some like powders (not my preference), some like acrylics, I like oils. A good coat of Dullcoat to start with will remove some of the shine. Go from there using prototype pics as a reference.

Here’s a different technique

For covered hopper walkways, one technique is to try and highlight the high spots of the mold walkway. As others said use a balck wash or paint the walkway blakc and wipe off the excess. Then weather lightly with rust etc. Another option is to replace them with etch metal walkways. An excellent upgrade that gives the see through look need for a light, open walkway.

jktrains