So anyway I remember somebody telling me that 90% isopropyl alc. will get rid of soem overweathering I did on a proto 2k loco with tamiya paint. So I found some rubbing alc. (or whatever it was) I believe about 70% in my medicine cabinet and it took to paint off without much damage to the paint underneath. So I get the idea that Im going to build then weather 3 new CN 1937 40’ box cars (branchline) I had got earlier that day. After I had built them I had found I had nothing to weather them with…so I look towards the iso 70% and will not go back to pastels and chalks for fading. I applied the stuff with cottonballs then wiped it off and whatta great faded look it achieved. I intend to try it on most of my older rolling stock.
Do you have any amazing around the house solutions? Windex? Chocolate Milk?
iodine eh, I have these model metal alluminum coloured roofing that just wont rust. I used an etchant or soemthing like that from my dads work and it still didnt work…
I’ve tried wiping 90 percent Isopropyl alcohol over a car that has already been treated with Testors Dull Coate. It produces a chalked out effect. However, I have not been able to use it with consistent results. Sometimes it chalks out the entire panel, while other times only a small section of the panel. Not sure how to better control the reaction.
Just be careful! 90% isopropyl (the red label stuff at Wally World) is what I use to strip paint off of plastic shells, it does a wonderful job. If you get too crazy with it, it’ll take all the paint off.
Some guys add a couple drops of black ink to some alcohol and use it for a wash over wood to darken it down, not sure how it would work on plastic?
A couple of Oxycontin later and you won’t care either…
Be careful with the alcohol…unknowingly getting it on your fingers may leave fingerprints in the paint where you did not intend them…so I’ve heard…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
yes I had a similar problem with the alc. but with 70% you can keep going over it again and again until its perfect each wipe takes away the imperfections of the previouse wipe
What! No HO medicine cabinets?? Where do your people keep their Tylenol, their rubbing alcohol and peroxide bottles (for weathering THEIR models), etc??
Don’t laugh, I remember one time on rec.models.railroad someone asking about what to use for HO window screen!
Bits of nylon stocking, preferably in a gray color.
A medicine cabinet in HO scale would be pretty simple–a little rectangle of wood or styrene with either some silver paint or a bit of aluminum foil glued to one side.
I use isopropyl alcohol (3oz) with a few drops of india ink or black leather dye to weather wood and as a wa***o tone down a paint job. You can mix a little brown leather dye in the mixture for a softer weathered look. The best thing is that this mixture is very inexpensive and easy to work with compared to some commercial weathering products.
70% isopropyl alcohol is all you can buy in Canada, anything above 70% I believe, can only be bought with a permit and is soon to be banned, my pharmacist said its used in the drug trade (illegal) the 70% works fine, it just takes a little longer to remove paint.
I’ve used straight alcohol to weather cars before. I got the idea from th article about renumbering the BN loco in one of the issue. It gives thepaint a real nice faded look.
Andrew
Don’t forget though to use latex gloves, especially if you are tinting alcohol with paint. This will keep you safer as the “palm side” of your hands and fingers absorb chemicals rapidly. The gloves will also eliminate the “finger print” problem DHarmon is describing.