I remember seeing an article on making a jig for painting/weathering wheels and trucks. I believe it was in MRR. Any help, or other ideas /suggestions that will work?[:)]
I just brush paint the wheels with Floquil Rail Brown and give the trucks a coat of Testors Dull Cote and some dirt colored chalk.
I use grimy black on my wheelsets, with maybe a little oily black on the outside faces (but it’s too hard to see to really bother with). As for trucks, I generally give them a disting of earth, followed by a drybrushing of oxide red (rust) and a wash of black to blend everything together. That, of course, is over the base color of the truck, which can be several colors depending on the road (some roads painted their trucks carbody color, others painted them black, while older trucks generally turn into the color of well-used rail)
This sounds very familiar! It was in one of my MRR issues, but I have well over 100. I think the author was using styrofoam blocks to hold the truck frames, wheel axles, and even couplers in place as he painted them. Good idea as it’s a time saver.
I enjoy weathering trucks and wheels as the results come so quickly. I use paint “washes”, which I read about in MRR a few years back. Newbies can achieve results that the “old pros” get with airbrushing. [4:-)][tup]
Depending on the car or locomotive, I usually thin 2 to 3 colors, each in separate containers (plastic egg crates or medicine bottles are great for this). Among the colors I like to use are: Rust, Brown, Charcoal Gray, Engine Black, Concrete, and White. All Flat, no gloss. I thin them 40% to 50% so that they become “watery”. Works equally for Solvent or Acrylic based paints.
With a thin paint brush, I dip into the washes and stroke the truck sideframes in an upward motion. I alternate between colors; first the rust, then gray, then rust again, etc. Allow one minute between coats. For wheels, same steps except that I take a tiny paint brush and run around the wheel face. “Capillary Action” now occurs: The paint washes run into tiny every nook and cranny. What’s neat is that no details are hidden and you can still barely see the black underneath, just like the prototypes.
After applying the last alternating color, the results are amazing! This is why I no longer use my airbrush for weathering trucks.
Hope this helps!
I don’t “weather” them as such. I generally paint the frames grimy black and just add KD wheel sets “as is”. I rigged up a nifty jig for the frames. I don’t remember if I got the idea from a magazine or if it’s the product of my vast intelect (OK half vast intelect).
I got a piece of .1X2 about a foot and a half long and cut a series of notches the width of the bolsters on 2" centers. The bolsters go into the notches and the journals are protected by the body of the jig. A small finishing nail at either end and a rubber band stretched to hold the truck frames in place and bingo! You can do a couple of dozen truck frames in less than 5 minutes.
For wheels that need painting I use a jig that I can’t take credit for. I got the idea from an article in Mainline Modeler. First, I mask the treads and put a circle of masking tape on the axle next to the insulated wheel (ever try to figure out which wheel’s insulated after you’ve painted them?) Then I pick up the wheel in the fixture which consists of a old style wooden clothes pin (the kind with the torsion spring) that has had a piece of 3/32 brass tube inserted into a hole in the ends of the two halves and then has had the tubes bent at a right angle facing each other. Press the two clothes pin halves and the “jaws” open up. Grab the axle ends w/ the tubes and let them close on the axle and you’re ready to spray. The needle-point axle bearings are protected by the brass tubes. When they’re sprayed just open the jaws and let the wheel set drop out. It’s not as fast as the truck frame device above, but after the paint dries you just take off the masking tape and that’s the extent of clean up.
I prefer weathering with Acrylics, you mess up you can wash it off.
ok i’ve thought about it and i give up . why does it matter which wheel is insulated ?
MidniteFlyer,
That is impressive work. Excellent job!
I brush paint my wheels and trucks with my own custom mixed colors (to provide variation from car to car) using inexpensive Acrylic craft paints I buy at Walmart. I buy some basic colors, black, brown, white, gray, silver, red, blue, green, etc. and then mix the color I want.
I usually thin it with water quite a bit and use it as a heavy wash. Sometimes two or three applications of different color variations until I get the shade I want. See my Freight cars page at my website. http://trainweb.org/dvwrr/
ERIEMER
the first time you have to paint a set of wheels to go into a metal truck frame you’ll understand why it’s important to know which is the insulated wheel (as in steam engine tender trucks?)
UP SantaFe-When you talk about Walmart acrylics, are you talking about the liquid stuff
in the bottles or the paste stuff in the tubes like artists use.(I get the point about the insulated wheel now. Didn’t think about metal trucks. Don’t have any.
Just did some more trucks.
A P2K SCL GP9 and an Athearn BB Railbox car. Used a combo of 3 washes:
Polly Scale Rust.
ModelMaster Acrylic Medium Gray.,
Badger ModelFlex Engine Black.
Results are very nice! The Polly Scale Rust resembles the reddish-orange clay that’s commonly found in the Georgia countryside.
Seaboard Coast Line road locomotives passing through Georgia on their way to Florida often received a coating of clay dust on their underframes during thunderstorms.
Was especially visible on trucks and fuel tanks.
10-4!
I have reference pictures of modern freight car trucks on my PBase gallery.
http://www.pbase.com/lumixfz30
Also the best source of help on weathering anything is…
http://modeltrainsweathered.com/forum/index.php
[#ditto] Yep!! Sometimes results into a prototype “hot box”!!! [:O][:O][(-D][(-D]
If you have sprung trucks, it can cook your springs.
I first use a base color, depending on what type of effect I’m looking for. I use a cheap Rustoleum type flat primer purchased from the local hardware store. Black for friction bearing trucks and a few different shades of red primer for roller bearing trucks. I clean them first by soaking them in alcohol for a few minutes to get rid of machine oils, let them dry, then poke one end into a foam type poster board like this.
I let them dry over night and then turn them over on a clean area and repeat the process. When they are dry, I use a brass wire wheel to clean the wheel treads. and axle points. It takes just a few minutes and any slip ups with the process is easily touched up. This gives a very nice base coat to work from and paints the often neglected wheel backs and the complete axle.
Then I use AIM weathering powders mixed with a clear flat acrylic paint to give the texture and color I’m looking for.
Wheels are so individual, per car, that I try not to do two cars the same. The environment the cars travel through and the loads they carry gives them many
different characteristics.
Even older cars that were converted to roller bearing trucks will look much different with their new wheels.
Here are a few more examples.
Now I’m contradicting myself as this car should have wheels closer to black given the greasy friction bearing trucks
.
Is this what you were looking for?
Terry
Neutrino, Mr. Kluke,
OUTSTANDING work! With a blue sky background you guys could easily fool many people into thinking that these are prototype photos.
Thanks for sharing.[:D][8D][4:-)][C):-)][tup]
Neutrino and Mrkluke:
Best looking wheelset weathering job i’ve seen!
Terry:
Is that wheel painting jig Scratched or Kit? If kit, who 's the manufacture?