any tips for weathering rolling stock?
I’m sure this thread will get lots of responses.
I’ll try to make this as short as possible.
Here’s one of my modern freight cars. An Athearn Railbox. I began weathering it by running a Testor’s flat black wash over the whole body. A very thin wash. (To my suprise the paint didn’t crack or melt from that solvent.) The wash clings to the cracks along the ribs and not so much to the flat areas. Once that dried, I washed it again, but this time with burnt sienna watercolor/ alcohol in an uneven pattern. At this step, the surface was flat enough to hold powder. so using a soft sable brush, I worked some earth tone chalks on the body, focusing on the botton edge. Then I did the usual 2 hits of dullcote to seal on the goodness. HA!
This car has rivits opposed to exterior ribs. So, what I did was wa***he entire body with orangish brown water color. (all my water soluble washes have rubbing alcohol in them, it breaks the surface tension). After thats dry, I hit it with black shoe polish and alcohol. While that drying I come in with a damp q-tip and worked the areas between the rivit rows. I didn’t wipe the pigment off, just worked it around some.
I don’t know if you can see them in this photograph, but it is has rust on the roof and down some of the sides.
The young rust streaks are ground up brown, red, and orange chalks mixed with burnt sienna water color, applied with a 10/0 brush.
Then I dullcoted it twice and it was done.
This one was pretty straight forward. After washing vandyke brown water color/ alcohol mix over the entire body, I speckled each side of the car with tubed, concentrated water color pigment. Random dots of different colors–ochre yellow, indian red, raw umber, and charcoal black. The next step ties it together. I take a damp, long bristle soft brush and wo
The easiest way to start out weathering without all that other stuff is to use Grimy Black RR paint mixed with Alcohol and wa***he loco or boxcar with it. Then spray it with Dullcote made by Testers I think. The results are nice and gets that shiny plastic look away from the boxcars, locos and structures
Pastel chalks are an easy way to weather. They are available at Art supply stores. White, Black, Gray, Rust, the Siena colors, the umbers and almost any earth tone you like are good. I use an old cheap modeling type paint bru***o apply. I rub hard on the surface and the brush becomes bushy and useless for paint after use for weathering.
With chalks, if you do something you don’t like, it can be removed with soap & water. The problem with chalk is, once you get the item looking the way you want, people will tell you, you must seal the chalk down with Dull Coat or a similar product. This action will eliminate two thirds of the weathering job you just did. Many folks talk about applying 2-4 coats of weathering with coats of Dull Coat in between. I have recently simply stopped using Dull Coat. I have another product which I will try on the next car I weather to see if it is better.
Other people espouse the use of Bragdon’s Weathering Powder. This is a product similar to chalk but has some type of adhesive mixed right in with the powder. A selection of Bragdon’s Powder is $25.00 or so, so it is not cheap. The results I have seen with this product were very good/excellent. Of course the artistry of the applicator has more to do with how well the item turned out, then the product used.
I also use railroad weathering colors. I paint the undersides trucks and wheels of cars with Roof Brown and highlight with rust.
There are as many different ways of weathering as there are people whom weather. No one particular person’s method is the correct and only method. I like to try the different ways people come up with and incorporate methods which I enjoy doing which produce interesting results. Remember also that cars have varying degrees of weathering on them, due to their location of use, amount of maintenance received and the newness of the car. Weathering is a fun process and I enjoy doing it almost as much as enjoy building the car itself.
AggroJones
Nice Job on those cars! That Railbox brings back a lot of memories. They were EVERYWHERE! Now, they’re virtually gone (or at least the paint scheme is)
Any of you guys over 30 remember the “JAILBOX” car that Walthers had back in the 70s? I wish I had bought one! That thing was hilarious!
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones
I’m sure this thread will get lots of responses.
I’ll try to make this as short as possible.
Here’s one of my modern freight cars. An Athearn Railbox. I began weathering it by running a Testor’s flat black wash over the whole body. A very thin wash. (To my suprise the paint didn’t crack or melt from that solvent.) The wash clings to the cracks along the ribs and not so much to the flat areas. Once that dried, I washed it again, but this time with burnt sienna watercolor/ alcohol in an uneven pattern. At this step, the surface was flat enough to hold powder. so using a soft sable brush, I worked some earth tone chalks on the body, focusing on the botton edge. Then I did the usual 2 hits of dullcote to seal on the goodness. HA!
This car has rivits opposed to exterior ribs. So, what I did was wa***he entire body with orangish brown water color. (all my water soluble washes have rubbing alcohol in them, it breaks the surface tension). After thats dry, I hit it with black shoe polish and alcohol. While that drying I come in with a damp q-tip and worked the areas between the rivit rows. I didn’t wipe the pigment off, just worked it around some.
I don’t know if you can see them in this photograph, but it is has rust on the roof and down some of the sides.
The young rust streaks are ground up brown, red, and orange chalks mixed with burnt sienna water color, applied with a 10/0 brush.
Then I dullcoted it twice and it was done.
This one was pretty straight forward. After washing vandyke brown water color/ alcohol mix over the entire body, I speckled each side of the car with tubed, concentrated water color pigment. Random dots of different colors–ochre yellow, indian red, raw umber, and charcoal black. The next ste
in a nutshell…i like to use poly-s antique white, water, and alcohol, for dark colored rolling stock, india ink and alcohol for light colored rolling stock, and pastel chalks …chuck
Water colors. Not acrylics. Water colors re-dissolve when liquid is applied to it. Grumbacher is the brand. It comes in what appears to be a mini tooth paste looking container. I got 'em from Micheal’s the craft store. Try to catch it on sale, they’re cost a pretty penny. I aquired each color once a week using that “40% off any single item” coupon that comes in the Sunday news paper… Every week I came and paid $1.50 for a new color tube.
water color in tubes, eh! I’ll bet my wife has some of those lying around somewhere, heh heh![}:)]
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones
I’m sure this thread will get lots of responses.
I’ll try to make this as short as possible.
Here’s one of my modern freight cars. An Athearn Railbox. I began weathering it by running a Testor’s flat black wash over the whole body. A very thin wash. (To my suprise the paint didn’t crack or melt from that solvent.) The wash clings to the cracks along the ribs and not so much to the flat areas. Once that dried, I washed it again, but this time with burnt sienna watercolor/ alcohol in an uneven pattern. At this step, the surface was flat enough to hold powder. so using a soft sable brush, I worked some earth tone chalks on the body, focusing on the botton edge. Then I did the usual 2 hits of dullcote to seal on the goodness. HA!
This car has rivits opposed to exterior ribs. So, what I did was wa***he entire body with orangish brown water color. (all my water soluble washes have rubbing alcohol in them, it breaks the surface tension). After thats dry, I hit it with black shoe polish and alcohol. While that drying I come in with a damp q-tip and worked the areas between the rivit rows. I didn’t wipe the pigment off, just worked it around some.
I don’t know if you can see them in this photograph, but it is has rust on the roof and down some of the sides.
The young rust streaks are ground up brown, red, and orange chalks mixed with burnt sienna water color, applied with a 10/0 brush.
Then I dullcoted it twice and it was done.
This one was pretty straight forward. After washing vandyke brown water color/ alcohol mix over the entire body, I speckled each side of the car with tubed, concentrated water color pigment. Random dots of different colors–ochre yellow, indian red, raw umber, and charcoal black. The next ste
Looks like you got the help you needed already, I was gonna make a suggestion, but I learned something instead!!
Greg
I mix about 1 ounce of water with 1 ounce of 70% rubbing alcohol and a few drops of either Polly S, shoe polish, or a pea size cut of tubed water color. The wash looks heavier in the cup than it will appear on a model.
With this, I just ran a thin Polly S grimey black wash over the whole thing. Wipe down the sides with a paper towel while it was still wet, leaving only a hint of color on the rivit rows. Then this one was dullcoted up, and worked with light gray chalk and light tan chalk. And dullcoted again. The end.
Oh yeah, and the trucks are drybrushed with Polly S dirt and a little rust.
This is great weathering information, but what do you do to the roofs? In particular the refer, the roof should be pretty beat up from the ice houses, would’nt it?
Joe
I’ve seen some prototype reefers with white crap around and streaking from the ice loading holes. I only modeled 1 of my reefers like that. Most of them
I just chalked up some to fade the black and kill the starkness. I like that look better.
While i’m here, I’ll show a better shot of the Railbox.
roofs depend on the age of car, on older cars I dry brush some aluminum paint in spots ,working from center outward, I also use roof brown as it represents older rust,then rust streaks can work on down car sides. I also use the airbrush a lot, using a 80% water/paint mix(mostly grimeyblack), yhen lightly do car,from roof to sides and ends, the same mix with dirtbrown will work, use this mix sprayed from the bottom upwards on sides.trucks I disassemble and paint straight grime black,do wk=heels and axles also,be sure to cover holes for axles and tips of wheelsets.for newer cars try spraying wheelsets with a brwn/orange mix as new steel rusts right away,when using chalks try dullcoting car first,chalks tend to stick better to the dull finish.I use black on rivit/weld lines and around doors and hardware.on older red cars I use red ,white and black, this the cars the various shades that older cars weathering is posses. weathering is a art form in itself, take your time,have fun,Mike
If you do not weather your cars they just look like toys…also weather all your buildings, autos, trucks, and little people…it helps blend it all together…I like to get cheap rail cars at swap meets and train shows to try out different ways…India ink and paint washes…dry brushing…chalks…ashes…markers…ect
You’re getting a lot of good replies on this thread. I hope you’re learning somthing Cheesy.
These are two modified tyco plastic deck flatcars. I painted the decks with Testors “wood” and ran washes of brown shoe polish over one. The darker one got black shoe polish. Then I lightly drybrush a little Polly S railroad tie brown on both. And dullcote misted across everything.
I like to use Armour Grey, Black and Mineral brown as base weathering colors for oversprays with an airbrush. The grey is a good road dust, general grime color. Black is good for soot and coal dust. Mineral brown is good for a brake shoe dust, rusty hue. It also tones down regular old “boxcar red” cars.
In addition to pastels, another good weathering technique is to streak rust colored oil or oil based paint and then vertically streak it with just paint thinner to dissolve away part and make rain effects.
Also look at individual car patterns. Hoppers and covered hoppers have a lot of road grime under the slope sheets due to water being thrown up off the wheels. Similarly a boxcar will have a pair of “rooster tails” on each end above the rails where water was thrown from the next car. Engines tend to have a “bow wave” off the front truck, its especially noticeable on F units.
To model peeling paint, paint the area with the under color (rusty brown, primer, galvanized metal) dab on irregular splotches of rubber cement, then paint the car with the final color. Rub off the rubber cement and you will have irregular patches where the paint peeled off. To make chipped paint, pain the area the under color, then dampen the area lightly. Sprinkle on coarse salt and let it dry. Remove any excess and paint the final color. When it dries, brush off all the salt and little chips in the paint will appear.
A decent weathering job will make even 'shake the box" models look much better.
Dave H.
Wow, Well, there is a “plenty o’ info” here. I am going to try and take a stab at some of these tricks. Thanks guys.
Best Regards
John Kanicsar
Go Eagles