I weather pretty-well all of my locos and rolling stock, but in most cases not to any great degree. I want most things to look used, but not abused.
If I’m painting items for a friend, I usually know their weathering preferences, but always ask if there might be exceptions.
I painted this brass locomotive for, at the time, a fairly new friend, who wanted it well-weathered…
After I knew him a little better, I invited him over to run some of his locomotives, as he had no layout (I later helped him to build a layout, and he’s done a nice job of adding to it as years have gone by…about 40 of them).
When he saw my locomotives, he commented on how much he liked the appearance, so, as he continued to collect brass locomotives, I painted them, at his request, much like I paint my own. Some time later, when he had a new loco that needed painting, I asked if he’d like that weathered one re-done.
He liked the idea, and liked the results, too…
…and he dubbed it “that recently out-of-the-shop look”. I’m not sure how many locos I’ve done for him, but I’d guess a few dozen, including diesels.
Another friend asked if I could paint her undecorated BLI Mikado as a loco not too far from its impending date with the scrapper.
This is the initial paint and lettering job, along with the Elesco feedwater heater system that I added at her request. It’s done as a more-or-less newly-painted locomotive (just in case she had a change of mind on the weathered version)…
Some items look better then others. Some were air brushed, some with powders some with oils. Some lightly weathered, some heavily weathered. Some I do not like, some I do like. The fuel tanks have ‘‘wet’’ fuel marks on their sides. I try to find a photo of a subject and then I start.
Anyway I am modeling a Bankrupt Railroad.[B)]
This Loco #7754 has a broom stuck in the front grab rungs. Gotta keep the walkways clear of dirt and maybe sush a racoon out of the cab. Here you can see the ‘‘wet’’ fuel marks slopped out at the fuel tank fill cap.
The last ore car had the everything and the panels powdered but not the ribs. (I have a photo of a real ore car looking like this)
The second ore car had everything, panels and ribs powered.
The third ore car is somewhat clean yet (only air brushed with Grimy black).
Yikes! I hope that the OP’s original pic has the loco farther away from the edge. Otherwise, weathering is much harder with that pretty train in multiple tiny pieces!
I’ve not weathered my loco but do the freight cars. The shiny plastic look of cars is not eye-catching to me. For those afraid of weathering, you can get some cheap cars to practice after watching some vids. Agreed tha once you get past the initial fear factor, weathering is not too challenging.
Here are a couple of photos of some kitbashed, painted, and weathered Stewart F units. I firmly believe to achieve maximum realism, weathering is the one thing that I would do on almost everything to a degree. It tends to blend things together.
It amazes me that people don’t weather their stuff. I would never tell someone how to enjoy this hobby, a whatever floats you boat kind of thing, but I am still floored.
I weather everything at least lightly. Actually most of my weathering is kept pretty light.
The answers in this thread really speak to how the hobby has changed.
If you asked this question 30 years ago, you might have gotten a few who said they simply don’t like the look of weathered models, or the “fear of messing it up” answer.
But I don’t think anyone in HO would have said they were concerned about reducing resale value.
I don’t think hardly anyone in the HO part of this hobby 30 years ago even considered the idea of thinking they could get their money back out of these toys.
I plan to go to my grave owning this stuff. What happens after that will not matter to me. They are my toys, I bought them to play with, and play I will.
I find that weathered models can look different between photos and viewing in person.
There was an individual who did some boxcar weathering articles for another magazine. I thought “wow” when I saw the magazine photo. That turned to “yuck” when I had the opportunity to see the model in person.
Thank you guys for sharing some awesome weathered models. I have a PRR L1 mikado that I’d like to weather substantially at some point. I’ll likely use a combination of paints and weathering powders.
I agree, however I tend to see it the other way around. Often pictures of models are close up, and the weathering does not look great. However when looking at the model in person at the distance when observing on a layout, the effect looks much more convincing.
