Hey I was weathering a Bay window caboose, with powders, it looks OK, I am going to start using airbrush after I figure out how to do it right. But anyhow, what is a good way to weather trucks? Mine with the powder it doesnt cover right and with rust paint it looks fake. Thanks Mike
You gotta start out by cleaning the trucks. Scrub 'em up with 91% alcohol or water/detergent will work.
Then you can come in with Testor’s dullcote. Can or airbrush. I’d use the airbrush for better control. Hit it up and let it cure for a few days. Then you can mist it with Rust-o-leum metal primer. This adds a lil texture and a nice oxide tone. Then give it a light drybrushing of Polly S dirt or somthing to lighten it up & pop the details. Hit the springs with a bit of thin down rust color paint.
Most trucks are made from engineering plastic, to which many paints adhere poorly. However, since the trucks don’t get handled too much, you can weather them , mostly, as you weather the car. I like to paint the wheels first, using a brush. There’s no need to remove them from the trucks. I paint the outer faces some shade of black, and the backs and axles a rusty colour. If the trucks are the roller bearing type, paint the wheel faces rusty rather than black. I like to put a touch of rust colour on the springs, too. After the car has been painted and decaled, attach the trucks and weather the cars. If washes are to be applied to the car, I do them first, then weather with an airbrush. When you use an airbrush to weather the trucks, remember to roll the car back and forth as you spray, so that all of the wheel faces get the same amount of weathering.
Wayne
I spray paint all my trucks with red auto primer, in a spray can, from the auto parts store. Gives an overall rust effect. The typical gloss black plastic truck isn’t very realistic at all. Prototype trucks are unpainted cast steel which turns rust red after some time out in the weather. Remove (or install later) the wheels from the truck. Clean off any flash with file or knife. Wash in hot soapy water and scrub with an old toothbrush to get the mold parting compound off. Dry thoroughly, leaving no water drops lurking in the springs or deep in the axle holes. Mask the axle holes with tape. Paint in the axle holes will ruin any free rolling properties the trucks might possess. Spray lightly, both sides. Give the primer overnight to get good and hard before handling.
Brush paint the faces of plastic wheels with grimy black. I tend to leave metal wheels in the factory finish 'cause it’s pretty. It isn’t truly realistic, but it’s pretty and its good enough for me.
I quit at this point and assemble the model. You could do something to indicate black oily dirt collecting around the friction bearing journal boxes, or crud from spilled loads settling on the truck frames, but I don’t bother. The prototype railcars I have photographs of usually just have rust colored trucks.
Wayne,
Nice job on the tutorials - thanks for taking the time.
Guy
Great tutorials Wayne [tup]
In my experience, the paint they call “rust” is to orange. I find that Roof Brown is a very good color straight from the bottle to represent old dark rust that is on freight car trucks.
Thanks for the kind words, guys. I hope that there was something there that proved useful. [swg]
Wayne
I really like you mehod could you give a little more detail in what color you use for rust. Thanks Mike
Mike, I’m afraid that I don’t have a formula for “rust” colour - I usually have a bottle or two of rusty colour on my shelf, thinned and ready to use. These are added to with remnants left-over from other paint jobs, and I periodically “adjust” the colour by adding whatever I feel is required for the effect that I want. Boxcar red is generally a good colour to start with, to which you can add varying amounts of other colours, including, but not limited to, red, orange, yellow, brown black or whatever you think might work. Use small amounts of all colours, including the boxcar red: if you don’t get anything that looks like the rust colour you want, your “failed” attempt should still be useable as some type of weathering colour. Real rust comes in so many shades that it’s hard to go totally wrong, even if what you end up with isn’t what you had in mind. [swg] Sorry that I can’t offer something more specific, but I just do it “by eye”.
Wayne
You can even use felt tip pens. This is what I did with my last weathering job:
More at weathering.
Wolfgang
Yep! That orange rust is good for new wheels in a gon load but the roof brown or even Krylon Camoflauge brown is a great base coat for equipment that’s been in service. I just use the bottle rust on the springs.
(Don’t listen to Aggro. He doesn’t know anything about weathering…[:-^][:D])