Weathering 7mm Wagons

[brossard]

I thought I'd try my hand at weathering/distressing some PO wagons to make them look like they might have done in the early 60s.

 

Here goes:

 

First a Dapol wagon.  I upgraded this with Bill Bedford sprung W irons and RCH brakes.

 

 

 

Next, a Parkside wagon:

 

 

Finally a Lionheart wagon:

 

 

 

The process is a lengthy one and quite exhausting.

First, I used a fiberglass pen to fade the lettering and body colour.  Next I masked the bodies and sprayed black patches for the number, bottom door indicator and tare.  For the Parkside Charlesworth wagon this was a mistake because, to my horror, when I removed the masking tape, much of the lettering and paint came with it - a poor do.

I used aged concrete for the natural wood planks, any light yellow or cream colour will probably do just as well.

If anyone is moved to take this job on, get yourself some black patch transfers - far easier.

In preparation for transfers, I sprayed a coat of gloss varnish on the bodies.

Next I applied P numbers, vee and Tare using Fox transfers.

The white stripe denoting end door was very difficult and I eventually gave up trying to get the transfer to work.  I painted it instead which involved a massive amount of masking tape.  I did have some success with a paint pen, but mine is old and blobby.

After all this was dry, I sprayed on some flat varnish.

The fun stuff next.  Using my airbrush I sprayed on a light coat of dirt.  I covered the underneath and solebars and a short way up the body.  This was followed by a light coat of black in the same place.  This really does tend to bring out detail.

With the paint dry, I moved on to powders.

I started with rust, coating the metal parts, W irons, springs, iron fittings on solebar, buffers, strapping and rubbing it down with an old brush (don't use a good one, this really wrecks brushes).  Next I applied burnt umber powder (dirt) to tone down the rust.  Finally I used black powder to bring everything together.

I used a fiber pen to bring out bare metal on the buffer heads.  I used a silver pencil to highlight the door banger end which would have been bare metal.

I didn't neglect the interior.  I started by using my airbrush to spray aged concrete on the bottom and sides.  I then used pretty much the same procedure as described above to try to represent a natural wood but abused interior.

 

 

Shown prior to external weathering.

 

 

Well it looks pretty good to me.

 

John

Edited September 13, 2019 by brossard
Replace Photobucket pics with proper ones

[Gene]

Very nice work John.

[Hal Nail]

Good stuff! The new planks look convincing to me - what do you mean by aged concrete, is this from a particular range?

 

Cheers

[brossard]

Hal, I have some bottles of Polly S acrylic paint left.  The range was discontinued a couple of years ago by those idiots at Testors.  For natural wood (hope I don't cause a raging debate here) a light brown/beige colour is a good starting point.  I enhanced this by rubbing on burnt umber (dirt) and black powder.

 

John

[SouthernBlue80s]

They look good 

[Guest Q663368]

You are a person of many talents John. Nice work.

[brossard]

To add to the natural wood colour discussion, I got some Dapol BR opens the other day.  The interiors of these are painted cream - a good base colour I think.  I will see what I can do with them.

 

John

[brossard]

I weathered the Dapol BR open wagons aver the last couple of days:

 

 

 

Base coats of lightly airbrushed dirt and black.  Powders mostly and a bit of silver pencil here and there.

 

The Dapol couplings are poor.  The open slot for the links allows them to come out.  I tried closing the slot but broke it off  .  I fitted Slaters couplings.

 

 

I tried to get a decent bare wood interior.  The model comes with a cream painted interior.  I started by dragging sandpaper across the planks to simulate grain.  A light coat of concrete (dark cream) was airbrushed on.  This was followed was light coats of dirt and black.

 

I lightly applied umber and black powders to individual planks and then rubbed that in to get the varied shades on sees in worn wood.  Thoughts?

 

John

Edited September 13, 2019 by brossard
Replace Photobucket pics with proper ones

[brossard]

I worked on my Lionheart tank wagon recently:

 

 

I airbrushed PollyS oily black on the tank to try to replicate the spillage.

 

John

Edited September 13, 2019 by brossard
Replace Photobucket pics with proper one

[brossard]

I built the Slaters BR standard insulated van some while ago.  My weathering attempts then produced a dismal result with the body execrably filthy.  I've scrutinized pictures of vans like this and while they get careworn, in no case were they utterly squalid.  I used IPA to remove the excess powder, but in doing so, wrecked the transfers.  I finally got my loins girded (mental image alert!) yesterday and redid the transfers.

 

Recently I bought some Tamiya Panel Lining paint which essentially a thin wash.  I decided to give it a try, here is the result:

 

 

I am quite pleased with this.  I do need to give the tyres a scrub up.

 

John

Edited October 8, 2019 by brossard

[Guius]

I built the Slaters BR standard insulated van some while ago.  My weathering attempts then produced a dismal result with the body execrably filthy.  I've scrutinized pictures of vans like this and while they get careworn, in no case were they utterly squalid.  I used IPA to remove the excess powder, but in doing so, wrecked the transfers.  I finally got my loins girded (mental image alert!) yesterday and redid the transfers.

 

Recently I bought some Tamiya Panel Lining paint which essentially a thin wash.  I decided to give it a try, here is the result:

 

P1010001-005 by John Kendall, on Flickr

 

I am quite pleased with this.  I do need to give the tyres a scrub up.

 

John

And rightly so, you've made a cracking job of this insul van.

Guy

[brossard]

A couple more examples:

 

Slaters BR Std van:

 

 

Slaters Conflat A:

 

 

I used double sided tape to stick the container down.  The shackles are a dreadful fiddle.

 

John

Edited October 8, 2019 by brossard

[Guius]

The shackles do look good though, worth the effort John. I can't quiet make out but are there also bottle screws on the securing chains to boot? What's next on the bench?

 

Best Wishes

Guy

[brossard]

Yes Guy thanks.  Shackles are a must I think despite their fiddlyness.  Yes, the castings have the bottle screw representation.  None of it works of course so the shackles are a bit loose. 

 

Focus just now is Ian Kirk Gresley coaches, you might have seen the thread.  On the "to do" shelf I have 3 MMP brass steel mineral wagon kits that I'm itching to try,  also a Slaters SR  4 wheel PLV/GUV.

 

John

[Guius]

Do you do your modelling little and often or do you have a burst of creativity? For me its the former, I quiet like having a fresh eye to evaluate progress and build on that over a few  days. I suppose it depends on your circumstances. Having the luxury of a modelling workshop  must be bliss.

 

Regards

 

Guy

[brossard]

Hi Guy, being retired I suppose I have my dream job, making models for me.  Since switching from 4mm to 7mm about 7 months ago I've been feverishly building.  I have a basement which has three rooms.  The main room is for a layout (11' x 20'), a workshop/library and a paintshop.  It's all a horrendous mess.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Guius]

Hi Guy, being retired I suppose I have my dream job, making models for me.  Since switching from 4mm to 7mm about 7 months ago I've been feverishly building.  I have a basement which has three rooms.  The main room is for a layout (11' x 20'), a workshop/library and a paintshop.  It's all a horrendous mess.

 

Cheers

 

John

Got room for a lodger

 

Guy

[brossard]

Over the last little while I've been building a pair of steel mineral wagons.  This is very much a development exercise to see what I can do to replicate the scrofulous appearance of these.  Here's what I got:

 

 

The wagon on the right is LMS dia 2109, built in 1947.  It has a MMP body and Peco chassis (my ambitions were writing checks that my skills and experience couldn't cover wrt the MMP chassis). 

 

The one on the left is the Parkside kit to LMS dia 2134, built 1948/49.

 

I tried to follow Martyn Welch's method but didn't have any usable Maskol.

 

The approach was to prime with grey and then, when that was dry, paint the wagons black all over.  Next it was a coat of rust paint brushed on (acrylic).  The interiors were left black.  Since I didn't have Maskol I took a leaf from the armour community and sprinkled salt onto still wet patches of Humbrol red brown paint.  After drying, I brush painted the grey (Humbrol acrylic).  Next the salt was knocked off (it does dry hard so Maskol is probably better) leaving a pretty good peeling paint effect.

 

Transfers were applied in the usual manner.  To prepare I spray the wagons with Glosscote.  After the transfers are on and dry, I seal them with Dullcote.

 

Markings were distressed where the rust would have damaged them.

 

Finally weathering powders were used to finish off.

 

John

Edited October 8, 2019 by brossard

[GW Jim]

John.

 

I really like the look of those weathered wagons. I have just started on some of my O Gauge ones. Can I ask what you use on your wheels as I never seem to get it right, to my eyes that is  

 

Thanks 

 

James.

[brossard]

Thanks Jim.  I have a thing about wheels.  Just about the first thing I do with a kit is to paint the wheels.  Some people I think, paint theirs black but they're not, they are a sort of grungy rusty, earthy, black colour.  I mix up a pot of those colours (no rules) and use that.

 

Later on at the weathering stage, I apply rust and black powders to give some texture.

 

Tyres are polished with a fiberglass pencil.

 

John

[Dava]

These wagons are going to look great on your layout

 

Dava

[brossard]

I weathered this over the last couple of days:

 

 

 

LNER 12T goods van.  From a Parkside kit.  Vacuum pipes are Slaters, I don't like the WM ones supplied.  Screw link couplings are Dapol which look quite good despite not working.  Notice the safety loops which Parkside make no mention of.

 

John

Edited October 23, 2017 by brossard

[brossard]

I've done a couple more 16T mineral wagons:

 

BR Dia 1/108 made with a MMP body and Peco chassis.

 

 

 

BR Dia 1/109 again with MMP body and Peco chassis.

 

 

 

Method is the same as previous.

 

I now have 7 mineral wagons, 3 ex PO and 4 steel which the logical side of my brain says should be enough - we'll see about that.

 

John

Edited November 29, 2017 by brossard

[Guest Q663389]

Excellent work John, as always.

 

I will send mine to you, they should arrive tomorrow.

 

I enjoy following all of your posts.

 

Alan

[brossard]

You'll have to get in the queue Alan.  I've got two mates here who want me to build their kits.

 

John