I four HO ExactRail gondolas that need to be rusty on the side. I don’t have an airbrush, but I thought I would brush paint some Polly Scale roof brown and rust.
Any suggestions?
Get some other cars that you can experiment on. Get some weathering powders. Or buy an air brush. You can hand paint rust if you have a lot of artistic talent.
I agree with
I agree with Lee. rambo1…
Buy some chocolate brown weathering chalk. Bragdon Enterprises has it. A quicker/cheaper way is to make your own chalk powder. Pick up earth tone chalk sticks at an art store and make your own powder by rubbing the chalk on sand paper.
Put some of the brown chalk powder on a 3x5 card. Coat the gondola sides with Dullcote. Take an X-acto blade and gently flick the brown chalk specs. onto the still wet Dullcote. Let dry and add one more layer of Dullcote.
Lance Mindheim
Visit Miami’s Downtown Spur at www.lancemindheim.com
And in case you don’t know, this guy knows what he’s talking about.
And in case you don’t know, this guy knows what he’s talking about.-Morgan.
Agree! Lance is among the best…
Will - check your inbox on your PM.
ratled
Thank you, everyone for the suggestions.
I apologize for taking a long to respond.
Lance I like your idea and I am going to look more into it.
Ratled, thanks for the link in the PM. You were right about the sound, thank goodness for the mute button.[swg]
My experience is that an overcoat of Dullcote eliminates 90+% of the chalk effect. Now I don’t do it (overcoat with Dullcote) and instead rely on Bragdon’s “sticky” chalks to stay put. That’s a good reason not to use ordinary chalk.
Mark
Yeah Mark I’ve had that same problem and dont really use a final application of dullcoat to finish anymore. Trouble is now I sometimes find rogue black smudges or fingerprints on my pants, computer, etc when I inadvertently touch the self adhering powder.
We’ll need to minimize manhandling the rolling stock and keep a facial make-up brush hand to brush out those smudges as well as launder our clothing.
Mark
I totally agree with the above posts. However, I use pastel chalks from my local arts&craft store. (Hobby Lobby)… Much cheaper than the so-called “weathering chalks” marketed to model railroaders. Six to eight bucks will get you a good set of earth-tone pastels. Enough to weather over a thousand models. Just use an X-ACTO knife to shave off some powder from the sticks and weather away! Nice thing about using the chalks, easy to adjust the effect before setting it with dullcoat. Really, best way I have found for weathering models…
Todd
I use AIM powders and Dul-Cote. The powders let you do more subtle weathering. I was really happy with the pilot on this Alco:
Similarly, the trucks and side panels of this Geep got the powder treatment:
I first either remove the shells or mask off the moving parts and windows with blue painters’ tape. Then I spray with Dul-Cote to give the model some “tooth” to hold the powder. I apply the powder with a brush, and then add more Dul-Cote to seal it. I find that the second spray dilutes the effect of the powder, so I go a little heavier. You can repeat the process if it’s not heavy enough the first time. Or, after you put the powder on, you can wash it off and start again if you’re not happy with it.
Agreed – applying Dullcoat to chalk, weathering powders, and the like, immediately undoes most if not all of the effect so it takes repeated applications - and after a time repeated applications of Dullcoat just don’t look so good. But note – Lance Mindheim is talking about applying the powders to WET Dullcoat, so he is talking about a totally different technique. This way the Dullcoat acts both as protector and fixitive. At the very least it is worth trying.
Four additional thoughts.
First (and I have not tried this) what if a very modest amount of chalk or powders was put on a series of index cards so you woudl be prepared to use them immediately, then follow Mindheim’s idea of wetting the car with Dullcoat and gently “blow” the powder onto the car from the first card. if it looks OK stop there, but if more is needed go on to the next index card of powder. That way you are not fiddling with powders while the Dullcoat is drying. You would lack the control of Mindheim’s “flicking” technique but might get a more thorough application of the powder.
Second, when using powders sometimes I create a blend of different colors and often there is some left over. Rather than contaminate the “pure” color, I save all the odds and ends of various colors in their own container for a sort of generic weathering color or shade.
Third, powders seem to stick better on a slightly roughened surface.
Fourth, and this addresses the original poster’s inquiry, years back there was an article by a young modeler in MR on weathering without an airbrush. He&n
Yea, AND IT looks like a 6 to 8 dollar weathering job too.
I used to use those cheap chalks, but I moved on to A.I.M. products.Bradgon would work also. They offer much better adhesion and are easier to work with. I don’t recommend the cheap chalk.
I used the “real rust” powders on this gondola and really like the result.
Will - One more thing, a lot of guys (me included) have taken to using Krylon Crystal Clear instead of Dullcote
http://www.krylon.com/products/crystal_clear_acrylic/
11 oz for $3.00 at Walmart instead of 3 oz for $6.00 at the LHS
ratled
I added a page to my website so we could have some photos to look at:http://www.lancemindheim.com/rust.htm
In terms of the chalk, as others mentioned I have also found that lighter colored chalk (tan through dust) does pretty much disappear after a Dullcote application. I haven’t really had that problem with the chocolate browns and black. Although I use Bragdon chalk now, I threw out the make your own idea for those that are on a budget or don’t want to wait for the mail. It’s been awhile but I believe the gondola on my web page was produced with chalk powder made by rubbing chalk sticks on sand paper.
The second photo shows rust produced from artist oils. This is much easier than you would think.
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Apply dots of burnt umber artist oils to the car with a tooth pick or nail.
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Take a very small brush, dip it in mineral spirits, and apply it to the dot or just above it. The rust will streak down. If you get an odd streak, just wipe it off and re-do it. Oils take a few days to dry which is there only downside.
Opinions and tastes will differ but when producing rust I prefer to only use three colors: chocolate brown, black, and burnt umber. I generally avoid orange.
Lance Mindheim
I use both the Bragdon chalks and artist’s pastels, and have acheived good results with both. For the artist’s pastels, I grind the entire chalk up using a morter and pestel, and store the ground chalk in empty, cleaned Floquil bottles. Just dip in your brush and you’re ready to go.
Somebody mentioned having multiple layers of Dullcoat. I spray on one coat before applying the chalk; I then apply a color of chalk, and then spray the car with Lacquer Thinner. Then I apply another color of chalk (or more of the first color if I am trying to build up the color), and spray on more Lacquer Thinner and so on. The result is that you can get realistic layering of color without building up layers of paint. Oh, and I think that the chalk fades less this way than when coating it with Dullcoat.
Greg