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More Hopper Weathering. The Maskol & Hairspray Way.

londonbus

Entry posted by londonbus

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Also something i’ve spent time on is getting weathering right for my hoppers. I’ve been experimenting a lot on the Dapol 21T hoppers before I move onto the Accurascale, Bachmann and other (more expensive) types and i’m now happy with the results.

 

Basically it’s a tried and tested method well documents here and elsewhere - burnt umber and a lighter rust coat on first. Hairspray. Maslow dabbed on with a ragged sponge. Let it dry for 30 minutes. Coat of light grey (all Vallejo acrylics so far). Leave for 30 minutes, take the Maskol off. Wet the wagon and lightly agitate the acrylic paint in areas where you want more rust to seep through. Varnish. Leave overnight. Weathering powders, darl rust and coal black worked into the edges of the panels. And brought down with a wide brush slightly moist with thinners. Manipulate with a smaller brush with thinners to get the effects (vertically) and areas with more paintwork coming through. 

 

I have made my own decals with decal paper - as it’s the white paper the edges need touching up with a black pen. Also on the pictures below I have not got the ideal printer settings as I want a deeper black. I have achieved this in the past but did not make a note of the settings, so more experiments here needed in Word and the printer menu. The decals are also a bit on the large side so need reducing.

 

Other than that I think it’s not bad and an improvement on previous efforts. My repertoire now includes heavy to light hopper weathering. Always room for improvement however.

 

Tremayne

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sb67

Very nice weathering londonbus, the decals look very neat too, how did you do them? I've never used decal paper, was it easy to do?

Steve.

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londonbus
On 30/08/2019 at 07:00, sb67 said:

Very nice weathering londonbus, the decals look very neat too, how did you do them? I've never used decal paper, was it easy to do?

Steve.

It took a bit of experimenting, but that shouldn’t put you off. The main challenge is getting the resolution high enough with the system i’m using:

 

  • Design the graphic you want to replicate (I use Photoshop, but there are plenty of other options) I research as best I can the running number ranges for wagons and pick numbers at random. I keep a record for large rakes so I don’t replicate the same number
  • Save as a .png file and import into Word
  • Scale it to the size you want in Word (use the ruler), print on normal paper to check the size is correct
  • IMPORTANT - depending on which Word you use, if you just save the document the images get saved in a lower resolution which is sufficient to show in the finished product (i.e. the numbers aren’t legible). So there is an option in the image menu to retain the image in a high resolution.
  • To save decal paper print as many decals at the same time and keep the margins at minimum
  • In the printer settings use the higher possible quality print (my inkjet has a high / vibrant option) but depending on the printer you may need to play around with the “paper type” setting. I got this wrong with these decals and the black is not particularly deep. I don’t remember the correct setting, so I will need to do some experimentation. Tip here is that description of the paper isn’t necesserily logical, i.e. photo paper won’t necesserily mean the decal paper result will be glossy - you will need to try one small decal on each setting (moving the image in word slightly so when you print it on the same paper it doesn’t overlap. And (my mistake) MAKE A NOT OF THE SETTINGS SOMEWHERE SAFE !!!
  • When you have the decals printed two coats of matt varnish (I use Testors)
  • then apply - The decal paper I use is very fragile so only 30 seconds is needed in warm water and a dip in Microsol so soften it before applying it immediately (surface pre-glossed)

Hope that helps. 

 

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