I’m sure everyone else has noticed what a fine job Mother Nature does, of “weathering” the rooftops of rolling stock, if we simply don’t touch them for awhile.
I try not to smudge that fine dusting of airborne particles, when handling such items, but it just occured to me, that maybe someone has come up with a means of PRESERVING that look.
I was going to try an experiment myself, using a fine spray of water, or trying hairspray, to see if either could help affix the dust so fingers would not affect it.
Then it dawned on me to toss it out here in the forum, to hear if anyone was successful using any sort of method.
I would suggest cleaning dust off of the layout and everything else. If you have people in the house with allergies chances are its being caused by the dust. Google “dust mite” and you’ll see what’s living in there. There are thousands of them in a very small area of dust and all they do is eat the dead skin (dust) and crap it out. The later is what causes allergies.
Well, that sounds nice…I’m gonna take a rain check on Googling “dust mite.” There are some things I’m better off not knowing and this qualifies as one. [swg]
Dust tends not to be in scale. I wouldn’t “glue” it on. If I wanted the effect, I’d clean the roof and weather it, along with the rest of the car. Dust is not my friend; I do what I can to minimize it. We’ve discussed at other times ways to do that.
Maybe I should have qualified things a bit: I’m OLD.
Some of my rolling stock has sat there, inert, for many years, allowing for the build-up of a very fine layer of the dust I spoke of. Sometimes, even inside an enclosed cabinet!
It looks way better as weathering, than if I try purposely dusting with chalk.
Speaking of which: I’ve tried Dullcote, water, and hairspray on the chalk attempts, and it seems to simply make the powder disappear.
Being why I thought I’d see if anyone has found a way to preserve either that natural dust, or the version where we PUT it there.
Guess not. At least, so far. Hopefully someone hasn’t seen this posting yet, who does have a solution…or a magic potion or spell I can use. (I’ll start hunting around for “eye of newt” in the meantime, just in case).
If you think it looks good, then it does. I think you might want to try one car as an experiment. I’d rustle up a spray can of your favorite clear-flat. Before I sprayed, I’d either blow off or brush off the bigger stuff (the out of scale stuff). That would MAYBE leave behind enough to look good (to you) but not be out of scale (too much). I’ve got to admit that I’ve got a couple of pieces of rolling stock that would make good candidates here–the only way to get that last bit of “weathering” off will be to wash it off.
BUT, I haven’t done this stuff myself; so I’m all talk.
Ed
PS: Maybe it would work without the “fixative”–just blow off whatever will succumb and the rest will be “weathering”.
Thanks…but what you wrote has me wondering if everyone else is getting a different kind of “dust” on their stuff, than I am…especially to have to worry about SCALE.
If you ever noticed how the sun can shine across only a portion of a room, its a little disturbing to see just how much crud is floating in the air, even in a house with the doors and windows closed–and well tended in terms of cleaning.
Thankfully, that stuff is extremely FINE…moreso that chalk dust, or we’d all be choking to death.
But I’ll admit, when I see that handling an item left behind my big stupid fingerprints on an otherwise perfectly weathered boxcar roof, it has occured to me, to try to get more dust on it, quickly…like holding it on the outflow end of the vacuum or something…or keeping it nearby, when I have to do that AWFUL job that falls to me once a month: taking the bottom half of the garage-mounted, built-in vac cylinder off, and beating the bag hanging from above, to get some more of the collected stuff out.
My arms, after this distasteful chore, look plenty “weathered” alright. And some of the crud does, indeed, look chunky, so would indeed be out of scale.
If you’re getting dust on your rolling stock, then you’re also getting dust on your track. The first thing to do is to remove (or control) the source of the dust. Then, use the brush attachment on your shop vac to clean and remove the dust from everything than is permanently attached to the layout. For locos, rolling stock, and anything else removeable, take it outside, along with a soft 1" or 2" brush and a cold beverage, enjoy the sun and remove that dust - it’s not realistic-looking weathering, at least to my eyes. [swg]
Great advice, I’m sure, but sadly, I HAVE no laid track to worry about its conductivity…so far, its been just doing kits of rolling stock, structures, and the odd little diorama, so I can at least get a “feeling” for what it’d be like to have a layout.
I was doing another “hobby” last night, pushed into my retirement years, as its SO tedious: trying to arrange the 3 million digital photos on my computer, to categories where I may actually be able to FIND them, should I wish to see them.
I came across one of the roof of a boxcar I had weathered using chalks, and then lightly sprayed from a good foot or so away, with a can of Dullcote. In a photo shot with a digcam with 12 megafarkles, close up, I thought the chalk dust looked out of (HO) scale!
So, I got the idea that I would put, side by side, a “natural” dust example, to this “forced” version, and let YOU GUYS decide which looks better.
I’ve noticed that with normal weathering techniques, esp. chalk, that the weathering seems to vanish when sprayed with Dullcote. Do you have access to an airbrush? Mixing up a very thin wash using offwhite, or light gray and spraying it with an airbrush might work for you. I suggest a very thin wash, because, it’s easier to add more coats, than it is to remove it and start over if the color is too opaque.