I have spent quite a bit of time looking around here and everywhere else on the internet trying to find examples and other people’s experiences on how to turn a plastic model like a boxcar, reefer, ore car, or even a building made of plastic, all of which come with that “wood” grain, into something that actually looks like a real wood model.
So far all I’ve found is the usual treasure chest of astounding examples of rusting steel objects like riveted steel hoppers and steel gondolas.
As yet, I’ve managed to make plastic look dirty (yuk), not weathered or like real wood. I’ve used lighter dry-brush over darker, usually boxcar red, colors, but it doesn’t seem to quite make it.
Plastic models can be made to look more like wood than wood. The technique I use was based on an article in an old NG&SLG. First you make grain with a small tooth razor saw or an Xacto blade. Then you use one or more coats of MRR paint starting with light brown or grey and ending with a color that matches the color you want. Then apply chalks. In between coats you lightly scrape the paint with a fine sandpaper or fine tooth saw blade. The retaining wall in this scene was made using this technique.
That is a beautiful retaining wall, Peter, it really is, (looks more like wood than wood!!) and your method makes total sense. I like it and I sense that I could do that.
My challenge is that I have probably dozens of boxcars, cabooses, reefers, wooden refrigerator cars, not to mention wooden ore cars and the like, all of which at the moment look plastic. If I use your method of basically completely re-texturing and repainting them and then re-lettering all of them, well, to say that could take some time would be an understatement. I was hoping for a solution that is a little less time consuming! Yikes!!
Weathering (rusting) metal rolling stock, corrugated siding, and the like is pretty darn easy really; I wish there were some technique for wood that was at least sort of easier than this method you describe.
I make these dark brown plastic coaling towers look like well worn wood structures with a base coat of light tan (Pollyscale Earth) and then use india ink washes and other colors for more detail specific areas like rust and soot. It is only good for structures as you wouldn’t want to have to reletter rolling stock after painting it. Just a suggestion for structures.
This is a relatively cheap kit called “Aunt Millie’s House:”
The effect is achieved with cheap acrylic craft paints by dry-brushing. I wanted an old, worn-out paint look.
I’m also an advocate of “distraction.” The figures and details draw the eye away from the walls, which are good enough as a background, but don’t come up to Harold’s level of wood modeling above. As always, he sets the gold standard in getting plastic to look like wood.
There is some nice modeling shown above isn’t there.
My own advice is that while a bit of “tooth” added using a fine saw dragged evenly down the plastic is good, don’t over do it. Except for very old and decayed wood, you have to stand pretty close to see the grain. What you want to do is change the waxy look that pure plastic tends to have. Even mild abrasion with an abrasive pad can help BUT avoid swirls or changes in direction. Slow even downward strokes at a perfect parallel are best. Clean up the surface totally – no bits of plastic should remain.
I find that I prefer the aging effects of powders more than airbrushed weathering to get the look of textured wood. On structures you tend to see a certain discoloration where the wall meets the ground. On freight cars such as reefers there was probably more decay where the bottom of the wood siding met the flooring. With care you can capture this with powders. Bragdon powders are great because they are self adhesive and, unless the car or structure is going to be handled alot, you can dispense with “sealing” the powder with Dullcoat which just tends to change everything.
If you have a lot of plastic cars, I would just use Chalks. For the modular club I belong to I am making a reefer block of PFE reefers to pull behind my AC-5. I want to get at least 50 reefers and maybe more. I am buying Accurail kits and blending in brown white and black chalks on the sides, ends and roof with an artist blending stick and varying the amount of weathering on each car and then washing the chalks down with india ink and alcohol . I do not seal it. It takes less than 10 minutes/ car. The car on the left is an old Athearn steel kit that I built in the fifties before I learned more realistic techniques.
I use Pan Pastels because they are artist-grade pastel powders that stick, come in more colors, and are less money. I think if you search on Pan Pastel in our forum here you can get more info if you are interested.
I totally agree on the Dullcoat, which just messes up your nice work.
Well that is amazing…and I guess that’s the clincher for me my friend. Seems to me I have two choices: do an okay job and preserve the lettering and whatever else on my rolling stock, or, bite the bullet and go from the ground up so to speak (the plastic really) and try for something approaching your work and then do whatever it takes to bring the stock back into the inventory with heralds and lettering and all that.
If you don’t mind my asking, where can I see more examples of your work?
