One of the things that drew me to my new small layout, the semi-freelanced Conrail Fenway Division in Boston, was the chance to do heavy weathering of locomotives that had seen many years of service without being repainted. While Conrail kept their locomotives in good working order (far better than Penn Central and the other fallen flags that made up the road at least) they didn’t have the money to keep them looking pretty and clean externally.
I reciently bought a P2K Conrail SD50 on ebay for quite a good deal and went about looking for what kind of weathering the engine should recieve. I came across a great many pictures of CR SD50s on the Conrail Cyclopedia and one in particular caught my eye:
No this is not an engine in the scrap line or stored but in fact one in service and leading! Now my question is what would the best method for recreating this rather extreme weathering?
My thought is that the rust can be applied with either airbrushing or drybrushing, and the oil stains can be added with oil paints. The white spraypaint conrail logo on the fuel tank could possibly be added either through a custom decal or with a gel pen.
I’d love to hear everyone’s oppinion on how they’d weather the engine, thanks!
~METRO