AND, I will add that in my opinion a lot of weathering is WAY over done in the smaller scales. Consider your SCALE viewing distances and compare you finished product with prototypes viewed from similar distances. I can’t see specific rust details from 80’ away, why should I see them on an HO model at 1 foot away?
And in many era’s before the current “run it till it rusts away” thinking, equipment would be dirty - but not deteriorated - there is a big difference.
And, one more point - also regarding scale - almost any 1:1 paint blemish on an 1:87 model is going to stand out as being completely out of scale.
I do perfect paint jobs, and VERY LIGHT weathering. My railroad has great respect for things that cost money.
Weathering won’t hide a poor paint job: if it does, either the paint job wasn’t that bad or the weathering is overdone. There may be the odd exception, as shown, but if the paint work is bad, it should be re-done.
Even for heavily-weathered steamers, like the BLI USRA Mike shown here, which I painted for a friend who’s modelling the late days of steam…
…I start out with a paint job resembling a loco recently out of the shop, with gloss and semi-gloss finishes where they would have been appropriate…
On my mid-to-late-‘30s layout, there’s plenty of cheap labour available to keep the shareholders’ investments looking sharp and earning money:
The effort for paint jobs or anything else should always be the best possible, including weathering. Weathering looks like faded bloched paint but is actually some of the best work out there when done right.
I think you lost me on the 1:1 defect on a 1:87 model. A half inch (actual) paint run or scratch in HO would be equivalent to about 3 feet in 1:1–noticeable but not extremely distracting. A nick with a dental pick might be equivalent to a boxcar getting dinged by a piece on angle iron in real life. If the entire paint job or decals are totally bad then I would agree in should be redone or discarded. But the original thread was just saying let’s not get totally upset and reject a project we are working on because it is minimally less than perfect.
My answer is because I learnt what makes a good automotive paint job and I love how a properly done model turns out. If you are going to do anything, I’ve always been taught to do it right.
I model for the effect, not the minute details. Nothing I’ve ever painted looks perfect close up, but from three feet away I think it looks convincing enough.
I model for both the effect AND the tiny details. Everything I’ve painted looks perfect from close up and from 3 feet away you can still see all the tiny detail. I’ve built 100’s of 1/24 scale model cars and learned very early on that PERFECT paint makes the model. A turd close up is still a turd three feet away. It always will be. Some people have different standards then others when it comes to painting and it takes a very long time to master a show quality paint job. Of those 100’s of model cars I built I bet you I stripped the paint on 60 of them because I wasn’t happy with the result. There are a lot of things that you can say “thats good enough” in this hobby but to produce a nice model paint isn’t one of them.
There is no way I can see HO scale lift rings, small grab irons, rivet detail, door handles, or minor paint flaws (like broken pin striping) from three feet away. If I don’t notice it from that distance, I don’t worry about it.
One thing to keep in mind is that if a layout is set in a specific year or period, not everything should necessarily be weathered. You would have a certain number of freight cars and engines that would have recently been painted and would be in basically pristine condition. For those cars and engines you couldn’t hide the mistakes under weathering.
I’ve had good luck with spraying the model with a very thin coat(s) of the final color, sometimes over primer, sometimes not if the final color is a flat finish (sprayed directly on the model with no primer first). If sprayed thinly enough, sometimes not all of the places are covered well, like grills and crevices and such. Then, I use an artist’s brush to dry brushing my weathering color(s) where the body plastic, or primer, shows through. Any other small bare spots can be covered with dry brushing the color coat with an artist’s brush. The texture difference alone between the sprayed color and the brushed color looks a bit like weathering anyway. This way, there is usually only the minimum of paint needed to cover the model.
Always use vertical strokes when dry brushing, so any texture difference looks like dirt streaks.
A matter of semantics I suppose, but in that case, I would say that weathering does improve a “bad” paint job, since the paint job did not cover the model perfectly to begin with.
When all places of the model are well covered with sprayed paint, from large smooth areas to small crevices, a lot of times the paint is applied too thickly. And if there is any poor masking or bleeding, weathering just adds to the gloppy look, IMO. Even factory paint jobs look too thick sometimes, IMO.
Using a stiff brush that makes scratches isn’t that big of a deal, unless they are circular.
Not only that, remember that you are weathering a perfectly well painted car or locomotive. Jon Grant posted a picture of his Fully Weathered PRR B6sb 0-6-0 once along with a picture of the prototype he was modeling. I pointed out that under all the grime and dirt on the prototype that the glossy out of the shop paint was still there and could be seen.
My thought on the subject is that to strive for perfection is to advance one’s skills. Every model I do I try to make it the best I possibly can and to improve upon the last one I built or learn a new skill.
Now with that in mind, sure, real railroads are nasty, greasy, rusty and beat to h$ll. Paint is infrequently applied to anything after it leaves the manufacturer, if at all. Dirt is everywhere, as are dings, bends and holes. Why do you think the NS paints their stuff black- could it be that they haul lots of coal and wisely picked a color that wouldn’t show just how nasty the grunge is? I’ve worked on more than enough equipment that had leaking hydraulics or automatic greasers to know that such things get repaired, not cleaned…ever. Unless something prevents a piece of equipment from operating correctly and safely, you can forget about any repairs being done- and for sure never a strictly cosmetic repair (metro systems are different animals). Just my $.02 from observations I’ve made from working on railroads.
Really? Dude I’m looking at a new Atlas GP40 and a Proto GP9 in a cabinet in my computer room that is 6 feet away from where I’m sitting. I can still see every piece of detail on both loco’s. I don’t mean this in a negative way but you really might want to go get your eyes checked. I’m serious.