This morning I finished another model railroad project. I recently purchased a very nice Intermountain mechanical reefer. Personally I’m impressed with these cars. I weathered it and thought others might enjoy seeing it. The first photo is a before pic, and the others are after weathering. The photo quality may not be the best. I have a hard time with lighting indoors for layout photos.
SisF1,
I like it! Realistic and not overdone. [8D][tup]
I like the rusted wheel which makes it appear that an axle was replaced recently (some railroads have their spare replacement wheels sitting outside which accumulate surface rust once the protective coating of grease has worn off). I like the effect of the darker colored grime on the rest of the wheels and the grime on the refrigeration unit’s grill.
I have one of these cars and, regrettably, I “overweathered it” to an extreme! So I’m going to attempt to wetsand the washes off of it.
Good job. What colors and techniques did you use to get this effect? This car would fit right into a typical freight train from the 70s-90s. (can’t say today because, unfortunately, it would likely be vandalized with graffitti by thugs).
Nicely done. Looks to be in better shape than mine (range from lightly weathered to rust bucket that’s about to fall apart).
Antonio FP45: I start by applying Bulldog adhesion promoter to the freight car trucks. All paints I use are Floquil. I then airbrushed the trucks with grimy black. I touch up the springs with a little rust color. Three of the wheelsets were airbrushed with roof brown, and the fourth with rust. The rust patches on the roof were created by dry brushing roof brown, rail brown, and rust on in various spots. I applied a couple of small graffitti decals to the body sides. I took a piece of copper wire and touched the car sides randomly with some rail brown and rust colors to look like rust spots. In some places I took a soft brush and drug some of this paint downward to look like rust had streaked downward. I then fired up the airbrush and gave the car an overspray of thinned grimy black. I put it on a little heavier near the diesel compressor exhaust stack and around the compartment where the diesel is located. This particular weathering is a little darker than what the pictures appear. Seems like weathering tends to wash out in photos…to me at least. The next step was to overspray the bottom portion of the car with dust color to represent dirt and grime from being out on the road. I seal everything with Dullcote and it’s ready to go.
Hey, thanks for sharing your procedure. I’m familiar with Bulldog. Great product that comes in spray cans and quart cans (in liquid form).
Over the past couple of decades, I’ve always appreciated and enjoyed learning what weathering techniques various modelers use. I often learn something new and experiment. Your copper wire step is a good example that I’ll try on my next boxcar.
Re: your weathering washing out in photos. I know what you mean as I wind up taking a slew of photos of the same subject with: the flash on, flash off, room light on and off, daylight behind me, daylight in front, etc. All that just to find that “right shot” in which the weathering shows up reasonably well.