More Weathering Examples

 Work continues on my weathering experiments.  Here are some of my latest efforts.  This really takes some practice but even with very little experience you can get some nice results.

This car is the first where I made use of oil paints.  I only have Windsor & Newton Burnt Umber but there is a lot you can do with just this one color.  Before using the oil paint, however, I did some work using acrylic paints.  The rust spots are all done with acrylics and allowed to dry.  I then used the oil paint to do a wash.  Once that was allowed to cure, I went back and applied the rust streaking with the same oil paint. This has become one of my favorite techniques. It is VERY easy.  This car was finished with a dull coat.

These two covered hoppers were done in very similar fashion.  Both started with some stippling of rust colored acrylic paint. I used a very coarse packaging foam as the applicator as this had very wide bubbles to give a good texture.  The UP car got much more of the stippling, and an additional color, than the Rock car got.  After the stippling they both got acrylic washes of very thinned acrylic paint.  The UP car got a more brown wash an the Rock car got grey.  For the final details I did the oil rust streaking on the UP car and the Rock car got some thicker grey acrylic spill marks.  Both these cars were finished with a dull coat.

This hopper got almost the exact same treatment as the box car above.  I always use acrylic paint on the wheels and trucks but I do vary the colors from car to car.  This car was finished with a dull coat.  This is an important step when using the oil paints but you need to wait several days to ensure the paint thoroughly dries.

This car has a lot of techniques going on.  The first step was a thorough dry-brush of light blue over the entire body.  This is particularly important on the roof to give a nice faded look.  Next is stippling of rust colored acrylic paint with a focus, again, on the roof.  Next are some rust scrapes and spots with different rust colored acylics.  The car then got an acrylic wash followed by and alcohol wash.  Each of these washes were dried with the aid of a blow-dryer.  Finally oil based rust streaks were added.  This car did not get a dull coat.

This car is an extreme example of what you can do with mostly alcohol and ink. I started with a dry-brush of an appropriate reddish color to lighten things up.  I then used my Lance Mindhiem India in and alcohol wash. With is applied with a dropper and then allowed to run over the model. It is then QUICKLY dried with a blow-dryer.  As the alcohol dries it will produce this extremely faded effect.  You could leave it just this way but I went back and added an acrylic wash of a light brown over the top.  DO NOT varnish or dull coat this as the effect of the fade will be ruined.

This car was painted like the Santa Fe car above but I added in more acrylic rust work and some rust streaking.  I then dull coated it and the alcohol fade was basically removed.  Fortunately it still looks good so no need for re-work on this one.

I am really starting to fall into a groove with my weathering so it is time to change things up.  I need to add more oil colors to the line-up and I still need to try some pastels and pigments.  I have seen some interesting results on YouTube of using some rattle can spray paint to produce some airbrush-like effects.  So much more to try!

First Weathering Project

 OK, it is actually the first model railroad weather project in about 27 years but you get the idea.  I am dedicated to providing quality content for all my readers (OK, I don't have any readers but I will still post quality content).

The subject of this project is a Burlington China Red Double Door PS-1 box car manufactured by C&BT Shops.  This is an old kit, probably about 25 years old or more.  I was not overly impressed with the details but I am sure it was considered a good kit at the time.  Below are pictures of the assembled model.

The model came with metal wheels but they required assembly and don't roll very good.  Replacing the wheels is not an option, you would need to replace the trucks as well.  I will just stick with the originals.

The ladders and other fine details are quite chunky and really out of scale.  I was not a fan of this car after assembly.

Roof detail is good but those ladders really stick out!

Since this is really just a practice model, as are all of my 50-60s cars, I am not too concerned with how this turns out.  I will be using materials and techniques that I have been using for a while as part of my war gaming hobby.  I am pretty comfortable with these materials so this will be a good place to start.

Most of this is pretty common stuff.  The Army Painter Strong Tone wash might be the most challenging to find but is readily available online.  The isopropyl wash is the Lance Mindheim wash he outlines in his book.  I used the weakest solution for this project.

Below are the steps I followed with pictures.  I kind of remembered to take pictures of all the steps.

Start by removing the trucks.  This allows easier access to the bottom of the car for painting.  If you a better planner than I am you might do this during assembly.

Paint the bottom of the car, the wheels, and the trucks brown.  I used Burnt Umber but just about any brown will do.  The next step is to drybrush a medium orange color on the entire red portion of the car.  This is to represent the fade of the red.  You could also use something in the pink direction for the fade.

After the orange drybrush you will have something like this.  I went a little heavy on the roof but in retrospect I should not have bothered as the grey mostly covered this.  The next step is to apply grey with a make-up sponge.  This will be mostly just on the roof panels.

The grey has been applied.  You can see that almost none of the orange made it past this step.  The goal is to make this look like the paint has fade almost completely off the top of the car.  You could add some surface rust at this point.

The final step is washes.  This is really several steps all rolled into one and I did not get pictures of the process.  I started off by covering the entire box car in strong tone wash.  This is a dark brown acrylic wash.  You might want to do a dull coat before applying washes as the water based washed might bead up and not provide even coverage on very smooth surfaces.  Once the strong tone was nearly dry I applied the alcohol wash with a dropper.  The alcohol will react with the acrylic paint in interesting ways.  I sped up the drying by blowing on the model but I have added a hairdryer to my tools.  The faster the drying the more of the fade and oxidation look you will get.  Slow drying will result in the clumping of the pigments into interesting patterns.  Experiment with this and you will get some interesting results.

Below are the final results of my efforts.  I am very pleased with how this car turned out.  The weathering has helped me not notice the model's other issues.  So much so that I really like this car now.

I have been having a lot of fun weathering cars and trying new techniques and products.  I need to get some pastels and pigments and I really want to, finally, use my airbrush.  Lots more to come.