Hi Guys,
I’ve been reviewing photos of prototype wheels and trucks in several reference books and I think I’ve come up with a way to recreate the “weathered look”.
I paint the trucks and sides of wheels first. I’ve done this using an airbrush for the trucks and a paint brush for the wheels but I’ve decided to not bother with the air brush…I think it’s very easy to just use a paintbrush. For the basecoat, I use a dark grey acrylic paint but have also used oil based paints. The key to my “process” is how you get the wheels and trucks to look dusty and weathered.
To do that, I start by making some weathering chalk. I make my own chalk powder using a set of chalk sticks from a craft store. I bought a set containing various grays, black, and browns, etc. I took a piece of sheetrock sandpaper (it looks like window screen and doesn’t get clogged up like regular sandpaper) and stapled it to a “frame” made of 1" by 2" lumber. Then, I simply rubbed the chalk sticks over the “screen” and collected the powder underneath on a sheet of paper to then be poured into a section of a plastic box that has about 24 compartments. The clear plastic box I also got a a craft store and it has a tight-fitting lid.
Now, back to weathering the trucks and wheels. After I’ve painted them and they have dried a bit, I dip a paintbrush into isopropyl rubbing alcohol and then into a dark grey chalk powder. I then paint the wheels and trucks with this mixture. I don’t bother taking the wheels off the model…it’s easy to just slowly turn the wheels while holding the brush against them.
As you can see in my photos below, the result is quite convincing. I think the trucks and wheels have the look I’ve seen in the books. Let me know what you guys think.
The link doesn’t work for me. My only concern with that is the performance of the wheels and trucks after. Is that going to wear off onto the rails or anything? I have only painted the wheels because I’m leary of chalk on the wheels, but maybe I shouldn’t be. Incidentally, I found the easiest way to powder the chalks was just to take my hobby knife and “peel” the chalk off directly into my container. Its just like peeling carrots with a peeler and the powder comes off very fine. Its very quick, too.
I usually weather trucks with a brush also. I don’t usually use chalk or pastels. For trucks molded in black plastic, I slop on a base coat of Polly Scale rail brown, followed by drybrushing with dirt and rust colors (usually more dirt than rust). It’s easy, quick, and looks pretty good when done.
I paint the wheels rail brown on the trucks by spinning them and holding the brush against them. I can usually manage to keep paint off the wheel treads that way. Even with no other weathering, painting the shiny wheels a dark color greatly improves the appearance of the car.
Hi,
You don’t have to worry about the chalk coming off because the alcohol kind of causes it to mix with the surface of the undercoat paint and really I haven’t seen any come off. If it did, it wouldn’t land on the rails anyway, but rather on the ballast next to the track.
I get your idea about scraping the chalk but trust me, AND I don’t want to get into a quarrel about who’s way is best, but I was able to reduce 24 sticks of chalk to dust in a very short time and without making a mess. If your approach works for you, great. Guys reading this post can try both ways and decide for themselves. That’s what this forum is all about…sharing different approaches. Some guys like this DCC system; others that one. Some guys like plastic wheels; other a particular brand of metal wheelset.
The results look good Mondo. Thanks for sharing .
Here in the “rust belt” I think we encounter more impact of rust colors than you may observe in your area. That is just a shift in shades toward the reds along with the greys. As I recall Neutrino may have done a similar post recently, as his picture looks familiar, but I believe he was using paints and some weathering chalks as well.
Will
Overdurff, you’re right. I apologize for reposting that pic. I was rushing off to work and that one was the only example I could find quickly.
You are correct, I do use weathering powders. They are much more stable than chalk, as they don’t disappear when you seal them. I use weathering liquids too. A few drops of RUSTALL inside the wheel face, followed by a weak India ink solution gives a nice textured rust look. I stand the wheels on end and I use the same solution on the inside of the opposite wheel. Almost every car is different though, depending on where it’s traveled, if it’s gone thorough a classification yard, etc. Side frames are an evolving thing for me as I’m always finding new ways to make them look presentable. The ones shown here were painted with concentrated water colors that come in a tube. The same paint was used for the car also. (I need to repaint the wheels, I don’t think too many of these cars went through retarders and had their wheel faces polished.)
There’s an era related problem here. I started working for the SP in 1964 while there was a mix of roller and solid bearing cars operating. One thing I noticed was that cars w/ solid bearings tended to have greasy wheel surfaces, radiating outward from the center, due to less than perfecr grease seals. Roller bearing cars had dusty and dry rust surfaces. The polished tire sides (as shown on the Santa Fe reefer pic) would also be dependent on what kind of car and service. The SF reefer would probably have been through retarders but a car in unit train service or an intermodal car not.
I wasn’t trying to say my way was better, I’ve just always done it that way. Its one of those in-front-of-the-tv tasks and after a half hour program or the news, I’ve got a lot of powder. I can see how your way would likely be faster.
skiloff, I wasn’t criticizing your way at all! That’s what makes these forums great. There must be hundreds of ways to do a lot of these little tasks and every time I read one I always learn something.
Jim Rice4449 says:(snip)The SF reefer would probably have been through retarders but a car in unit train service or an intermodal car not.
Jim,I have seen intermodal cars and unit train cars with the shiny wheel rims on the NS…I have often wonder about that until I seen cuts of intermodal cars being hump…Also as far as the open hoppers that might be from rotary dumpers.I have notice the same thing with autoracks,autopart boxcars and covered hoppers.The only thing I can figure is these unit trains was made up from cuts of cars picked up at different locations or perhaps from combining of trains.[?]
One of the things that I do with all of my cars is as follows:
a) Disasemble truck - replace wheels with metal wheelsets if plastic
b) Paint trucks dark grey, wheels a rust car
c) Put back on car
d) Replace couplers with Kadee 5 with curved magnet cut off
Definitely looks better than black plastic…
