This is a warning to all of you who have not done any weathering of your rolling stock…Just Say No! Don’t start now, because once you do, and you see the difference it makes, it will be too late. You will be hooked. I know, it happened to me.
I thought I could just experiment a little. You know try a little dusting of chalk on an old box car. I thought I could quit anytime. And then I thought, well maybe I’ll put a little paint on the wheels too. Hey… that felt good, but the axles need some color too. Ohhh wait, the couplers aren’t shiny black in real life are they?. Just a little more, I can stop anytime I like, right after that new flatcar I built gets a little touch of chalk, and paint, and more chalk, and maybe I’ll try Harold’s method for weathered wood on the deck…Man that looks cool!
So, don’t start. It will suck you in and leave you wanting to do more and more to keep that weathering monkey happy. But at least I know I won’t get hooked on the really hard stuff, nope, no air brushes for me. What’s that, there’s a 50% off coupon for Michael’s in the paper. Hmmm.
I’ll leave you with one picture, It’s not the greatest, but you see, my hands were shaking, and I needed some more chalk to keep me going.
Looks good!!! I’ve been resisting for a while, though I recently went out and bought some chalk. Did you catch this “bug” from Aggro? I wonder how many more will be infected?[swg]
Good looking work. I don’t weather everything (just don’t have the time). I’ve never tried chalk, but I use the old airbrush. Takes a little practice but turns out fairly well. It will get you hooked though. I plan to weather all rolling stock when I get the influx of time that I need to do it.
Mike
I have weathered maybe 3/4s of my stuff, so I have done about 120 cars and engines (roughly). After some extensive therapy I have it under control. But you are right. It makes a HUGE difference in realism.
Can you return the chalk to where you bought it? I’m just saying, it’s a slippery slope you are perched on.
Yes, I do blame AggroJones, as well as Grande Man, hminky and many others too numerous to list. Enablers the lot of them. Getting a poor naive midwestern boy hooked on the chalk. That’s not right.
That’s why I haven’t weathered any of my models, I’ll think my un-weathered equiptment contrasts to much with the weathered piece and then I’ll have to weather them all [:D].
At least it isn’t an expensive habit like brass engines or something. [:0][}:)][:p][;)]
Nah, I’m going to hang onto the chalk. One of these days though, when I get some more track down, I may open “Pandora’s Chalk Box”. I only have about 300 O scale cars to do.[swg]
I’m afraid you may have contracted “modelling.” It can sometimes be cured with a dose of “Ops,” repeated at regular intervals. A small-scale case of “modelling” can sometimes be relieved with N-zyme, a known agro-blocker, which works by shrinking things so small that weathering no longer seems to change the appearance of anything.
Not only have you been sucked in, but you’ve become a part of the problem. How dare you post a pic of that flat car. Man, that deck looks fantastic!! Maybe I’ll try it. Just one flat car. How much can that hurt? Hmmmmmm…
I just went out and bought about 67 pounds of various kinds of Bragdon Weathering Chalk and after trying it out on a few locomotives, I’m seriously considering working up to freight cars. I blame it on Aggro (have to blame SOMEONE, LOL!). After seeing what your flat-car deck looks like, I think I’ll start doing some experimenting. Looks really good!
Tom [:D]
I found an interesting trick yesterday while having a first attempt at weathering. Decided to try to get rid of the “plastic” look on an LGB RhB box van, so I applied some brown wa***o the bodysides (which are supposed to be wooden), left it to dry a little, then wiped most of it off leaving residue in the woodgrain and plank lines. Looked pretty decent so I decided to do something about the shiny silver roof. Casting around the workbench I came across a well-used Peco track cleaning block, and in an experimental mood decided to see what effects I could generate. Rubbing this gently over the roof left a wonderful slightly gungy effect - not heavy-duty grime but just the look of a car that’s been in service for a few months. Worth a try I’d say - the only snag is that it doesn’t show up in photos!
The technique I used for the deck of the flat-car is a slight modification of Harold’s method he outlines on his web-site. (Thank’s Harold)
His painting of styrene to match weathered wood looked so realistic, I had to try it.
I painted the undercoat with a mixture of raw sienna and white acrylics to give it a little more color. It was really a very light tan color. Over the top of this, I used a very dilute wash of black acrylic. Actually, the wash was mixed up by getting some black paint on the brush and then cleaning the brush in water. The darkened water then became the wash.[:)]
So, I blame Aggro for the chalk addiction, but hminky is to blame for causing me to put bru***o styrene.[:D]
