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Postwar decrepitude

45609

Entry posted by 45609

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As a brief respite from bigger projects I've spent a pleasant evening trying out some weathering techniques on a ubiquitous RCH mineral wagon. It is no secret to those that know me that the long term aspiration for my ultimate train set will be set in the 1948-50 period on the ex GN and GC lines around Nottingham. As a result I'm going to need a lot of wooden bodied mineral wagons painted and weathered to show how they looked at the end of their life.

 

The wagon shown below started life as a bog standard Bachmann "Barnsley Main" 1923 RCH mineral. The running gear is an Exactoscale sprung 9ft underframe on wheels from the same source. I reused the Bachmann brake blocks and push rods but substituted the safety loops with etched strip. The brake levers and guards are Craigwelsh items, and damn fiddly they are too, but they do look the part. Buffers are from Dave Franks (Lanarkshire Models & Supplies) and were drilled out to accept replacement sprung heads from MJT.

 

The paint job started by distressing the original finish with a fibreglass scratch brush. Throughout I've only used acrylic paints and translucent washes from the Vallejo range. This made it possible to do the whole job in one evening. The underframe was painted dark grey followed by a few planks in a nautral wood colour to represent unpainted replacements. Black data patches were next and hand lettering with a fine sable brush. The weathering then commenced with a lot of drybrushing of silvery grey paint onto the plank edges to represent areas where paint has worn off the original private owner livery. A bit of graining was also picked out in the replacement planks. When this was dry successive washes of black, dark grey and brown were applied to add depth to the finish and tone down the brightness of the numbering etc.... The final step, so far, was to drybrush and wash a bit of orangey rust colour onto the iron work to give a feeling a complete neglect. I'm contemplating a final light airbrush of an underframe dirt mix to finsh it off.

 

The results look ok to my eye but I'd be interested to see what others think. Is the air of decrepitude too much, about right or not enough?

 

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Following the feedback below, thanks chaps, I've added a couple more photos for comparison. A little more toning down of the "freshly sawn" plank, addition of the end door stripe and a light blow over with the airbush. I think I'll call it done. AJ couplings now added ready for service on Clinkerford at York over Easter.

 

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ullypug
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That's superb Morgan. I'd say you've got it spot on, though personally I think the top left replacement plank on the upper photo is a bit too bright. 

The other replacement planks are bang on.

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devondynosoar118

Very nice! The only bit you might need to add is to paint the diagonal strapping chipped and bashed white on the end with the door. This measure was introduced in 1943 for all minerals with end doors. I like acrylics for this type of work, I think they produce great results. The chassis detail looks really good too

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Captain Kernow
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I think the top left replacement plank on the upper photo is a bit too bright. 

 

Interesting - I looked at that and thought - 'that's the first time I've ever seen anyone model a brand new bit of sawn wood as a replacement plank' - normally we tend to go for slightly weathered but still 'new' wood (as if the new wood's been stored outside for a while). I like the effort that you've gone into for the grain effect, too.

 

Oh, and everything else about them is superb, too!

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45609

DeathWatch,

 

The replacement planks are simply picked out with a light grey or natural wood paint colour over the original wagon finish.  Successive applications of dirty washes and paint streaking give the grain effect.

 

Cheers....Morgan

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