Good Way to Weather Buildings?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m looking for suggestions on weathering some of the buildings I’m working on…The main one I’m talking about is the Walthers Dayton Machine Co. I think it’s a really nice structure, but obviously I had to get it as a Built Up. It looks nice, but it has a bit of a plastic shine compared to my kit buildings I’ve painted myself…

Any good and easy way to add a more realistic look?

2

Get some blue painters’ tape and carefully mask off the windows, then spray the building with Dull-Coat.

If it’s brick and needs mortar, rub Hydrocal into the mortar joints and mist lightly with water, probably one side at a time. When it hardens, you can wipe off the excess with a paper towel and then tone it down with a light India-Ink-in-water wash, applied with a paintbrush.

3

I have the same building and I weathered mine first with charcoal gray powdered chalk, then a light wash of alcohol/India ink and let it run down the side of the building. It gave it a real dingy look and got rid of the plastic look.

4

Never be fooled by the words on the box “No Painting Necessary.” It’s not true. They all need paint.

Paint it. Even if it is the exact same color.

5

Yeah, I wondered about using a darker color chalk to weather the building; I may try that.

While it may be possible to paint the building, that would require disassembling parts of it or trying to deal with the windows already in place, etc. In other words, not worth the work involved. This is why I wish Walthers would offer some of their buildings as kits also.

MR used the Dayton Machine on their recent project layout, I wonder how they weathered it?

6

This a relative value. I just completely repainted several structures with 12-pane windows and glass. It is a function of time. Each window takes about 15 minutes. This is a before shot.

7

[#ditto]

I don’t care how “realistic” the colors are, they still look plastic. For the most part I stay away from built-ups but sometimes you just find a structure that is right for your layout and isn’t available any other way. Woodland Scenics built-ups are pre-weathered and they do look better but still need a little touching up to make them less than pristine looking.