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About this blog

A record of weathering work, intended to show both good and bad results, including explanations of what is used and how.

Entries in this blog

Weathering

Oxford Diecast 1/76th Land Rover Series 1. Step 5 - Finishing Off.

A dampened cotton swab is used to gently rub away the Dullcote from the glazing. The dampening is not achieved by dipping the swab into the white spirit, but by adding a drop from a brush or pipette to the end of the swab. If you're not careful, though, you'll take the Dullcote off the surrounds, as well!       I've achieved my aim with this model at this point, but I did go on to add another colour of pigment before adding a photograph to my flickr photostream.  
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

2
Weathering

Oxford Diecast 1/76th Land Rover Series 1. Step 4 - Pigment Application 2.

The remainder of the vehicle is now treated to a complete cover layer of pigment. The bodywork receives just a thin layer, but the underparts have two layers and the wheel hubs even more. If the matt finish won't accept any more pigment then I apply another layer of Dullcote and repeat the exercise. Areas to receive more varnish can be easily masked with a couple of strategically placed pieces of card.              
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

2

Accurascale Cemflo. Step 4 - Encrustation 1.

Preparation for the cement application. Materials to be used now are Testor's Dullcote and Lifecolor N. Europe Dust pigment. I searched through many pigments to find a suitable grey cement powder colour, and this one is the closest (to my eye) I could find.    
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

2
Weathering

Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

Who hangs on to old tins of paint, wherein gloopy remains stick to the bottom? I have an old tin of Humbrol 27004 Metalcote Gunmetal, most of which was used for airbrushing onto wheels and smokeboxes in a black/gunmetal mixture. During a search for suitable buffer head grease I found that the otherwise unusable pigment that remained in the bottom of an improperly closed tinlet had an interesting property. A lump of this goo was attached to a buffer head, smeared about a bit and left to dry. Once
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

2
Weathering

Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

A layer of Sleeper Grime/Frame Dirt mixture was prepared for airbrushing the sides, using more than the usual amount of white spirit. I wanted to be able to apply very thin layers, even thinner than my usual approach. Why a mixture of the two colours? Laziness, basically. My pot of one was empty and I couldn't be bothered to find another. The two colours are so similar that I didn't think it would matter.   The whole of both sides and ends was given a thin application of this mixture a
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

2
Weathering

Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

Out of the box this locomotive has a rather shiny smokebox, much more so than I would have expected. Before going any further I decided to apply a layer of Testor's Dullcote to that area so that pigments could be applied at a later date and that I could be sure that they would stick.   Dullcote dries very quickly into a usable state. These photographs were taken only two minutes apart.       My masking wasn't very good, so the Dullcote has landed on part
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

2

PDK Maunsell L1 class 4-4-0 No. 1783. Step 2 - Driving Wheels.

Underframe dirt is being represented by Railmatch Frame Dirt, variously altered in shade with random additions of Railmatch Weathered Black. It is applied by airbrush in very thin coats, turning the driving wheels a quarter of a turn between coats. This allows the complete wheels to be dirtied without leaving a paint-less shadow behind rods, motion and other necessary gubbins. When it comes to areas behind the wheels (frames, ashpan, springs and so on) then the airbrush will need to be carefully
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

2
Weathering

Dapol o Gauge 14xx No. 1444

It's the turn of the airbrush now. The inderframe will be discoloured using Railmatch Sleeper Grime, applied with an Iwata Eclipse SBS. The driven wheels are turned while the paint is sprayed, to prevent there being a patchy finish to the rims. With N Gauge and OO/HO Gauge engines this can be done with a PP9 battery, but this doesn't work with O Gauge. I use two pieces of scrap OO Gauge rail screwed into place through a piece of wiring terminal block set at the width of the wheel treads and bent
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

2

PDK Maunsell L1 class 4-4-0 No. 1783. Step 6 - Up Top.

The upper surfaces of this steam locomotive are shown with a heavy layer of soot-based grime. This is achieved by adding more weathered black to the mixture with frame dirt. If you look at the attached photograph you will see the difference between the wheels and the cab roof, for example, but I doubt (hope?) that you will see the join. By gradually changing the proportion of black and brown in the mixture, as work progresses upwards, the chance of 'tiger stripes' is significantly reduced.
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

2

Hornby Peckett 0-6-0ST 'Westminster'. Step 11 - Pigments.

The cab roof has now had some MIG Productions Black Smoke pigment brushed on to represent the build-up of grot ejected by the chimney/funnel, and random applications of the same pigment and Industrial City Dirt have been made to parts of the running plate. This locomotive is to be portrayed in a quarry environment, so a layer of dust is needed to reflect that. The Industrial City Dirt is also applied to areas of the wheels, steps and areas where crew's boots would take the stone dust.  
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

2

Hornby Peckett 0-6-0ST 'Westminster'. Introduction.

The recent crop of Peckett locomotives from Hornby has lured me back into collecting habits. Temporarily!    Their reproduction of the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM) locomotive, 'Westminster', which ended its days at Kidlington (Shipton-on-Cherwell) cement works (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8539534,-1.3086071,1896m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en), proved too much of a challenge for me and one was purchased specifically for the purpose of describing how it was to be weathere
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

2

PDK Maunsell L1 class 4-4-0 No. 1783. Step 8 - Other Pigments.

More work with pigments now, to add to the random dirty bits that have been created with Black Smoke. I normally use MIG Productions Industrial City Dirt or Rubbel Dust (that's what it says on the jar) for lighter stains, like ash and sand, and Dark Mud and Track Brown for rusty bits. In this case it will be Rubbel Dust (ash and sand) and Dark Mud (rust).   The lighter colour represents ash staining under the smokebox door and sand staining around the sandbox fillers, and the darker co
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1
Weathering

Rails/Dapol SE&CR Diag 1424 Box Van

The sides of this van are similar on texture to the ends, although I have to say that the vertical striations on the plank surfaces are not as noticable. The use of a wash was rejected because of the reaction when doing the ends, so the plan was to use pigment(s) on one side and thinned wash applied like paint to the other.   The starting point:       A thinned wash (MIG Productions Dark Wash) applied with a damp (as opposed to wet) wide flat shader diagonally
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

1
Weathering

Hornby Class 60 Colas Rail Freight. Step 1 - The Plan.

Something a little more modern, just for a change.   My reference library doesn't contain any photographs of this locomotive in this livery, so I looked through one of Strathwood's "Looking Back" series and found a Transrail liveried example that was depicted in a fairly well used but cleaned state. Sides and roof looked fairly clean, but the underparts were not.   The tools and materials list:   Iwata Eclipse SBS airbrush - not a large volume of paint to be used, b
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick in Weathering

1

PDK Maunsell L1 class 4-4-0 No. 1783. Step 9 - Finishing Touches.

To finish things off, some Black Smoke has been added to the wheel centres and the tender axleboxes and springs. I have also applied some Dark Mud to the seams in the tender, to indicate the start of rust, and some Rubbel Dust to the horizontal surfaces of some of the steps.   The requirement was for a very grubby workhorse, which might suggest that piles of paint and pigments are to be applied, but it is just as effective to apply small amounts of both to achieve the effect, adding mo
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

PDK Maunsell L1 class 4-4-0 No. 1783. Step 3 - Underframe.

When the driving wheels were being airbrushed, the paint was being applied to the complete underframe on each pass of the airbrush. Spraying started off the left hand end of the model and continued along the whole length, not stopping until the airbrush had passed the other end of the model. This produced a relatively even coat of dirt everywhere under the running plate. In later stages this evenness will be disrupted by other materials and effects that are intended to show the differing shades
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

Oxford Diecast JCB C3X 1980s - Step 6. Finishing Off.

The final tasks for this project are to sort out the cab windows and finish off the dirt and mud effects.   The muck on the windows is removed by dipping a cotton bud into white spirit and gently rubbing the glazing until the underlying Dullcote softens and comes off. I have deliberately not got right into all the corners to leave a film of dirt there.. The glazing can be polished with a dry clean cotton bud to finish off with.   Final touches to the dirt and mud involve abra
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

Oxford Diecast JCB C3X 1980s - Step 4. A Not So Light Coloured Pigment.

The next stage of dirtification was to add another layer of pigment, using the slightly darker shade of Dark Earth. This was added to the existing layer by simply using the pot lid technique and plonking the pigment on top of the Europe Earth layer. I needed to put a layer of Dullcote onto the Europe Earth first, though, or the new layer would have just fallen off. If you try this, don't get the aerosol nozzle too close to the model or the blast will remove your carefully crafted earlier attempt
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

GWR 70' Post Office Sorting Van - Step 4. Removing the Pigment.

Continuing the panel work, the same method as in step 3 is used to place pigment in all edges and corners, making an absolute mess of everything. Please note that I didn't do this without first testing on something that didn't matter!   Once all the pigment has been applied, work begins on modifying the appearance. Clean cotton buds were used for this, but not the type that fall apart as soon as you look at them. The ones I use are intended for use with make-up rather than with small c
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

Oxford Diecast JCB C3X - Photograph Only

Yesterday (Sunday 28th April) I had the good fortune to visit the RMweb South West Area Group's Members' Day in Taunton. What a blast!   During my early walkabout (I had a late one as well) I visited Lord & Butler's stand and found a JCB, all bright, shiny and yellow. I decided to use it as an example of what could be done with a few materials - Testor's Dullcote, MIG Productions Industrial City Dirt, MIG Productions Dark Mud and Railmatch Sleeper Grime. By the end of the day and a
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

Accurascale O Gauge HUO. Step 3 - Removing Rust Spots.

The paint used for the rust spots was enamel, so was easily removed with white spirit. The approach was to place a few drops on the bristles of a 1/2" flat shader brush and then wipe the brush downwards from the top edge of the body, all the way round the hopper. The eventual effect was to remove most of the thinned application but leave the first application of unthinned spots, and leave vertical streaks of residue. Although irritated at the original look, I'm fairly happy with the situation no
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

Accurascale O Gauge HUO. Step 1 - Checking colours.

An O Gauge HUO hopper from Accurascale is the next challenge.   The first thing to do is to choose the colours that will be used for this, and another seven to follow. Each of them will be tackled as a separate task, in the hope that the completed set will all look similar, but definitely not the same as each other.  The plan is to use Revell no. 84 as the basis for the rusty look, MIG pigments Dark Mud and Track Brown for shading in corners and around edges, Railmatch Sleeper Grime fo
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

Sunbeam Talbot 90 - Rather Rusty. The Beginning and The End.

Another 1/43rd model, by Oxford Diecast.   Back in the days when cars were cars and boys were boys, I spent my time car spotting. Trains had no interest for me, where I lived they were all green and electric. One of the cars I drooled over was the Sunbeam Talbot 90, and when Oxford Diecast brought out their model of it in 7mm scale, I just had to have one.   This is what it looks like out of the box:     This is what it will look like at the end:  
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

1

D3721. Step 1.

How it all began.   Out of the box, couplings removed but no hoses yet added to the buffer beam.  
Mick Bonwick

Mick Bonwick

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