More Freight Car Weathering

 I have been watching lots of MRR YouTube videos on all aspects of the hobby.  There are tons of great ideas on how to just anything MRR related.  John Arthur did a video on quick weathering techniques, and I decided to try one the ideas he presented.  This one is very simple but kind of terrifying.  All it takes is a spray can of Vallejo German Field Grey, which is a nice grimy grey-green color.

Vallejo German Filed Grey 28006

Start by removing the trucks.  You then just lightly, and carefully, spray the bottom of the car.  Quick passes at least 12" away is what you want.  It does not take much, as you are going for a subtle weathering effect.

Old MDC 50' tank car before.  I have added metal wheels.

The wheels and trucks are painted by hand.  I use any kind of burnt umber or rust color for the wheels.  The trucks are painted with Vallejo Panzer Aces Track Primer #304.  This has a very nice look that matched the grimy look of the weathering.

After the spray weathering.  I painted the wheels and trucks by hand.

Bottom before

Bottom after.

After the spray paint dries I spray the entire car with a dull coat.  This adds its own weathering feel just by knocking the shine off.  Finally, reinstall you painted wheels and you are done.

Before

After

The overall effect is much more noticable on a lightly colored car so you should be even more careful with them.  The dark cars are a bit more forgiving so it might be good to practice with them first.  This is a really quick and effective technique that will get a new out of the box car layout ready in minutes.  This is also a great starting point for more detailed weathering later on.  More on that in a future post.

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.

Bachmann EZ Track Upgrade How-To - Powered Re-railer

 My Bachmann EZ Track upgrade project is progressing and this time we have a very challenging section to work on - the powered re-railer.  This is probably the worst piece in the EZ track collection. It is a horrible design and it doesn't work very well as a re-railer and it is needlessly complicated as a power track.  Having said that it is the piece we have to work with so here we go.

The basic track piece is from a design I used as a kid in the late 70s except mine didn't have the roadbed and the connectors were round rather than the spade style.  They really should have done a proper redesign of this a LONG time ago.

This seems to be the newer style of this section as it has the index pins to hold the track in place.  If these were the only areas where it was glued it would be very easy to get apart but it's not going to be that easy.

Where the re-railer meets the roadbed there is glue almost all the way around.  You will need to take your time getting this apart.

I used a sharp hobby knife and a small flat screwdriver to gently separate the track from the roadbed.  Start in the middle just like the other sections.  You will get a pop when the center index pen comes loose but you will still have to carefully work all the glue spots apart.

You can see how many location they used to glue the track to the base.  Clean off an excess glue and smooth an nicks from the knife.

You can see how the terminals are connected to the rails.  This is a good time to mark the terminals in some way so you know which is which.  A notch on the plastic or something like that will be very handy in the future.  I, of course, didn't think of that until I had reassembled it.  It does seem like the near side rail is always the right terminal.

Taping is the same as the other sections.  I wanted the 'ballast' to flow farther up to the wood sections so I did a little more taping.  If you do it this way the track section will be taped and painted twice but I like how it turned out.

Base painting is done.  I used brush on paint to fill in a little on base around the re-railer.  If you don't do this you will have a nice black line all the way around the re-railer.  I used the same paint to paint the sides of the rails and to dry-bruch over the wood.

Reassembled and weathering washes ha been applied.  I think this looks pretty good.  I think I will try and build some sort of track-side shack or something to hide the plugs.  These do not look right to me as grade crossings as a lot of people do.

I think in the future I will design my own power section from standard track sections.  An idea for a future project but for now this will do nicely.

Bachmann EZ Track Upgrade How-To - Turnouts

The next step in the track upgrade project are the turnouts.  These are a bit more complicated than the straight and curve pieces and deserve careful consideration.  I am working with the standard trainset turnout.  These don't have a number like other turnouts as they are designed to replace either a 9" straight or an 18 degree curve.

This is the turnout I am upgrading.  It is a left-hand remote turnout with steel track and black roadbed. 
 

There is lots of stuff on the bottom.  The wire connected to the switch actuator and next to that is a cover held on by some screws.

 Before we can get to painting we have got to figure out how to get the track off the roadbed.  This is different from the straight pieces in several ways.  The obvious difference is the motor and the linkage that operates the turnout.  Another difference is the turnouts are not glued down but have screws to hold them in place.  We will start by removing the linkage.

Remove the six screws that cover the linkage.  Take moment to study this before removing any parts.  It is a good idea to take a picture at this point to make reassembly easier.

The parts are easy to remove.  Remove the connecting rod first. It just lifts off the gear and slide out of the tab from the track.  Remove the gear next.  Keep all these parts in a safe place. You could remove the actuator is you want to.  I left mine on but it does complicate things a little.   

 

Once you have removed all the gizmos its time to flip it over and remove the track.

See that tiny little screw?  It is very small.  It is a Phillip's head but I used a very small flat head to get it out. The hardest part is finding the right size screwdriver.

Two more towards the center.  See them?  There is a fourth screw at the other end.  No picture but you get the idea.

We are now ready to prep these parts for paint!

Once you have disassembled the track you can prep the parts for painting pretty much the same way as for the straight pieces. You can review the previous post for materials and such.

Here are the painted parts with the painters tape still in place.  The track is a little fiddly to get the tape on all the rails but it is worth the time to get a good coverage.

I taped off the area on the roadbed where the trunout slider rests.  I wanted to make sure this had good movement once reassembled.

I taped off this area above the actuator.  Seems to be some sort of ground or contact that seemed like it shouldn't get painted.

I spent a lot of time taping off this notch but in retrospect I should have just painted it.  It stands out a too much now.

Make sure that when you hand paint the rail sides you leave the contact pints unpainted.  If you don't you will have to go back and clean things off to get a good electrical connection.

Paint the rail sides just like you did for the straight pieces.  Don't get paint on the ends of the rails where the joiners connect.

Turnout is reassembled and needs just a little bit more detail work to be ready.  The next one I do I will tape off the bottom of the roadbed around the switch mechanism and the wires.  I got a surprising amount of over-spray.  It didn't hurt anything but I could have caused some issues.

I was really intimidated thinking about how to do the turnout but they are actually no big deal.  Keep track of the parts and document how it all went together and you should have no issues.  Not sure what I will try next. The power re-railer is probably the most interesting thing left to try.