I just emptied the waste toner bottle in my color laser printer. It looks like very fine weathering powder, a very grimy looking brownish black. Has anyone tried to use this stuff for weathering?
Sounds good to me. Why don’t you mix it with some rubbing alcohol and water and wash it over an unimportant car to see what happens.
Just be sure to read the health warnings on the new package of toner - there may be issues…
I’ve heard this idea before, and while it may appear to be a great idea, I would caution against it. Toner is pretty nasty stuff and I think its best left in the bottle/cartridge and disposed of safely. There are just too many other ways to safely weather your models.
I agree with the caution. You can buy a quart of powedered tempera paint in any color you want for a few dollars. And you can mix the dry powder to get any other color you can imagine.
With toner, what you get is what you get. No control, and questionable safety.
Since tempera paint is intented to be used in grade school classrooms, etc, you can even eat the stuff and not be harmed (care to guess how many kids have tried it? 
Agreed. I think it may even be a carcinogen.
Let’s be careful out there…
Good point… One thing I have noticed since getting back into this hobby that I never want to throw anything away! There is always this lingering thought that the item just might come in useful[:D] Anyone else have this afliction?
Hi Simon,
Yes, most of us in this great hobby start looking at everything we come across as a potential “modeling product”. Heck, I go to the craft stores all the time with my wife, just looking for products that can be used on “the railroad”. For instance, I’ve found that the moss they sell in craft stores which is supposed to be used around the base of artificial flower pots is great when ground up in a Quisinart food processor and used as ground cover. For around $3.00, I got a large jar of the stuff.
Last night, my wife noticed that after I had finished eating a bunch of grapes, that the stem looked like branches of a tree. I saved that stem and will spray it and add some foliage. I think she’s slowly becoming a “model” railroader.
Regards,
Mondo
Tempera paint has modeling potential. I am modeling Santa Fe’s sulphur gondolas that carried sulphur from Wharton County to Galveston for export. Thought about using real sulphur, but then I remember…special cars I scratchbuilt had special construction because sulphur tended to attack typical cars. Found some dry powdered tempera (the kind teachers mix in batches for kids). First took “flower arrangement foam” which was cut into the shape of loads, painted in with yellow tempera mixed with water, then sprinkled the wet shapes with dry powdered tempera so they left lose particle texture. Slightly messy, but even the messiness looks right.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aaf.jpg[/img]
I’m addicted. Matter of fact I have large spools of stapling wire, maybe 22/25 gauge
that I don’t know what to do with.
Ever try buying some??
I use something similar when I make bottle brush conifer trees. I use the wire to make the core branch structure. I bend the wire into a u shape and put some rubber cement on the wire, then spread sisal rope fibers along its length.
I clamp the open end of the u with a spring clamp, then hook the other end of the u with a c-shaped hook I chuck into a variable speed drill. A few slow spins of the drill and voila! Bottle bru***ree ready to trim and cover with ground foam.
Works pretty slick … I can make nearly 50 of these guys in an evening.
The trees in the back are bottle brush conifers.