While work on Foster Street progresses, I needed another little task that was not directly linked to the layout, I basically needed a change, so I decided to turn my attention to weathering some of the stock to be used on the layout.

Prompted by a comment that my milk tankers seen in a previous blog where far too clean, I set out to do something about it, and I thought some of you may be interested to see how I do it?

I do not have an airbrush, so all of my weathering is done with old fashioned paint brushes and using a very limited colour pallet, the paints I tend to favour for this are good old fashioned Humbrol, and consist of Matt Black, a Matt Grey (106) and a Leather Brown colour, shades may vary as long as its matt.

The one rule I stick to is that when I am building up the initial weathering I never use neat Matt Black, instead I mix up a couple of "dirty blacks" by mixing the balck with grey, or black with the leather. When I am weathering Loco's I apply this to the smoke box, frames and cab roof, for coaches I apply these colours to the under frames.

The first area to hit on coaches is the roofs, as this is the area that most of us see first, I like to work on batches, of no more than 4 at a time, and make sure that no too roofs are painted with the same shade (just throw in a little more grey). I even vary the shade on the same roof, as you really want to avoid the uniformed look. So I set to work on some Stannier coaches to give them that in service look, the roofs and under frames took minutes to paint, and then they were put aside to dry,

For the sides I try to simulate road dirt, by using mostly the leather colour but mixed with a little black or grey, this I then dry brush over the coach starting at the ends as this is where the doors tend to be and there is raised/recessed detail to which the paint will adhere, just like "muck" on the real things. I always work from the bottom of the coach, which in theory would have the most dirt and then ply less as I work upwards. I try not to get any of this paint on the windows, as I leave this to my final wash.

Again less is sometimes more so its a good idea to put the models aside to dry, plus I always find that a break during this process is sometimes a good thing as it allows you to view the work with fresh eyes. Once I am happy with the finish/effect, I then apply my final wash coat, I always clean my brushes as I go, in a jam jar which container a thinner that does not effect plastic ( I test this, as its important).

My final was then involves using a brush dipped in this "dirty" thinners, then run through the various paint mixes I used to weather to coach, you really want this to be very fluid, this I then roughly paint on the coach roof, slapping on quite a lot, as you want it to run along the gutters, ventilators, raised details on the roof. The good thing with this is that as the thinners evaporates the paint pigment is left behind, in all the right places. Two things to remember always do this in a well ventilated room, and do not over work this coating, let it flow.

For the coach sides I then use the same paint mix, but apply it at the top of the body first and let it flow down naturally, if it does not reach the bottom, apply a little more, and don't worry about it covering the windows, as when it dries they have a very realistic dirty look. I bet its not a new method but it works for me

I hope the attached photo's show this far better than my lecture above (apologies for the quality), I must get off now, and look at the Milk tanks, until the next time Happy Modelling