After I made an off handed remark about weathering on Kevin’s Paint Booth thread, he started a separate thread on Weathering, using my comment as a basis for the thread. So far, so good. But after a few replies about weathering products, the thread moved forward talking about generalities.
So, I decided to start my own thread. I need to be inspired. I need to see photos of your best work, your best weathering effort. So, show me your best weathering effort. Inspire me to get off my you know what and get me to try my hand at weathering.
I have never weathered anything before. I need to see some great examples of weathering and learn how you accomplished your masterpiece.
Who wants to be the guy who got richhotrain weathering for the first time after 17 years in the hobby?
I was pretty happy with the way this TT ended up. I have more to do on it but so far so good.
Same with the grain elevator. If you look closely you will see unpainted wood, this is because I noticed a lot of missed spots while looking at prototype photos. Also a little white paint on the tar paper roof, just like in the photos. I am sure people think I am a lousy painter when they visit but I at least know it is supposed to look like that.[(-D] Many Prairie Sentinals were left completely unpainted.
I’d show you…once I actually get supplies. Weathering has not been of priority for many years but as stay-home orders force me to work on model trains at home, I’ve taken up weathering. I’m currently waiting on supplies to ramp it up, but one tip I can give is giving freight cars a black acrylic wash, then removing most of it with a q-tip allows the paint to settle into details and highlight them, making them look more like real trains rather than models.
Rich … To get started, I suggest you study photos of the prototype. In particular, you should look at pictures of what you want to model. Imagine you are looking at your models.
For example, I looked at pictures of abandoned, rusty vehicles before weathering some for my scrap yard.
Rich, I hit the TT with grey from a spray can of some sort, you can see the overspray and the rest is powders. I have not had much success weathering with the airbrush though I like the results I get with it when I am just painting things.
I use my fingers more than anything with the powder. I also like to let washes fall as the rain would by using a fine mist sprayer.
This Tangent gon received weathering from a combination of methods, which is typical for me. I used oil washes and chalks. Note that some decals were added after the car had been partially weathered to show the lettering was newer than the rest of the car.
Finally, this Moloco car has some of everything above, oils, chalks, gouache, and airbrush. Every car is different, and I select the material I think would come closest.
Youtube is like a dog’s breakfast of contributors. Most can be wrapped in newspaper and tossed out with yesterdays fish. Yet, there are some good ones. I have always enjoyed this upbeat gentleman’s demonstrations:
Weathering? Like Nike says, Just Do IT!Kathy Millatt is another contributor that covers some structure weathering. Do a search at YouTube.
Start off with a coat of Dullcote and lightly brush some chalk powders or, lately I’ve leaned toward PanPastels. Don’t over do it. Stop sooner rather than later. You can always pick up later and add more effect later.
Just about all sytructures can benefit from a diluted wash of India ink in alcohol and it is easy to brush on. Again start light, darken up some areas later.
Start off small and simple. Get used to one technique before starting another. No reason to worry about getting overwhelmed. Keep it simple in the beginning.
This 40’ door and a half car is a kitbash of an IMWX (Red Caboose) car. The weathering was done using Model Flex Rail Brown and Grimy Black. When it was almost dry, I used small foam brushes dipped in Testors paint brush cleaner and removed much of the paint. This streaked the sides. I used an airbrush with the same colors to weather the trucks and to blend everything.
This loco is a kitbash of a Kato GP35. I painted it black, decaled it, painted the decals black again, then used Testors paint brush cleaner to remove some of the paint from the lettering on the long hood. Look closely and you can see the original lettering. I then redecaled it and weathered it the same as the boxcar above, but I used thin white paint on the sideframes and tank before I weathered it using an airbrush.
Thanks Kevin! It is a road that I’ve used sporadically since 1992 when I had Don Manlick make me some decals. That is where my TRWROUTE name came from! Here is an under constuction shot. The half door was cut down to 4 feet wide and styrene was used to complete it.
These logging camp cabins are laser cut MDF and card, and I painted them with acrylic paint, and I experimented with dry brushing water colours for the weathering, the reason being I could wipe it off if I didn’t like the results. I think it looks pretty good if you close one eye and cover the other one!
This Tangent gon received weathering from a combination of methods, which is typical for me. I used oil washes and chalks. Note that some decals were added after the car had been partially weathered to show the lettering was newer than the rest of the car.
