A few days ago I finished weathering my first Norfolk Southern engine today. I am personally very pleased with it even if it is not perfect. Its certainly much better than brand new when I removed it from the box. Well here are some pics from start to finish that i just wanted to share. The engine is HO and from Kato. I did a little bit of detailing to it too. I painted the sill white and the handrails and steps yellow like the real unit. I will lastly add MU cables to it. I removed the front plow because in the pictures of the real unit there is no plow.
This is the only prototype picture I used to model from Nov 2005. I assumed it was a little more wethered 2 1/2 years later. Plus I wanted to make it a little bit more dirtier
The only thing I used was four colors of weathering chalk that I bought from eBay. I have dirt, black, gray, and antique white powder colors. I gave the unit a dullcote spray before starting the weathering. Then I went layer to layer and dullcote between each layer. Then I finished it off with dullcote. I like it even though it is not a “professional” job
Personally I think you did a great job. I am in the process of weathering 5 Kato SD40-2 in
Santa Fe, I use basically the same technique you are using with a few variations. I have been weathering a few more eons than you, I suspect, but as I said, it looks good.
did you use the Sierra Scale Models powders? They come in a rust/dirt color, black, gray, and white and self adhere. Also, did you not encounter any problems with the dullcote blowing off or dissolving the powders?
Maybe, the powders smell exactly like womans makeup to me. They al came in little zip bags and I pour little by little out on the table and start brushing. The colors you mention is what they look like. The only issue with the Dullcote is I had to do many layers with the powder because after spraying on the Dullcote the weathered effect would disappear a little until I had many layers on. After about the fourth layer of chalk the dullcote didnt affect it. I also did a BNSF Dash 9 weathering job that I was SUPER pleased with. I did it almost exactly like the picture I used as a reference. I take it with me everywhere to show people. It looks so cool and realistic
Looks pretty good.[tup] Just curious why you didn’t paint the white stripe on the side of the cat walk before you started weathering it?
I think this is a different shot of it. http://www.nslocos.com/ns1652.html
Well I kinda forgot to do that first so what I did was painted the sill about 3/4 of the way finished and it came out fine. I painted it, weathered some more chalk, dullcoted and repeated the process. that is why it has black spots on the sill, it is not faded but the chalk/powder I used caused cool faded effects to make it appear that way. I painted everything yellow that was supposed to be EXCEPT the coupler lifter thing as pictured in the one you provided.
I’ve been doing this stuff for a few decades and it looks as good as any I’ve seen or done.
There’s nothing special about professional modelers. The only difference between regular modelers and the “pros” is money, not neccessarily ability. Some pros are excellent, some are ok and most are somewhere in between, just like “regular” modelers. We pros have just found ways to get paid to do what we’d be doing anyway.
Nice job, it’s a little dirtier than the NS units I’m use to seeing but my Brother in Ohio says the NS units that run through his town have never seen a wash rack. You were smart to use the blue painters tape on the windows…that is pretty much the only thing that works for me when I mask.
Thanks alot. I am now ready to install the decoder in it and put it on the layput to make some run thru. Here is the BNSF unit I did last week. i like it better but some might not. I am so impressed by the Dash 9-44CW BNSF unit. I have been showing everyone even people not into model trains
