Some weathering projects

[sb67]

The unexpected effect on #402 looks really good, I like the way that sometimes weathering can throw up things like that. I'm enjoying this thread, pity I'm not weathering anything yet but hopefully soon I can try out some of the techniques. 

Steve.

[chaz]

 

The next hopper car, #417, is to have fewer rust patches and look less down at heel.

 

 

To speed things up a bit I use my airbrush with no colour cup to waft air over the model to speed up the drying off of the solvent in the rust effect. I turn the air pressure right down to avoid the colour “spidering” across the surface.

 

 

One side of the car with all three colours of “Crusted Rust” used. Three panels have had weathering powders added.

 

 

The last two photos show the two sides. 

 

 

As with all this weathering I will set the model on one side and look at afresh after a day or two to see if any further work needs to be done.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

My next weathering project...

 

 

I will need to do a few jobs on it before I get the paint and powders out. It has a DCC (non sound) chip fitted in it and is a sweet runner, smooth, quiet and runs as slowly as I will ever want.

 

Chaz

[sb67]

A fine looking loco, Look forward to see how you deal with that Chaz. Excuse my ignorance but what is it and what era would that be from?

Steve.

[chaz]

A fine looking loco, Look forward to see how you deal with that Chaz. Excuse my ignorance but what is it and what era would that be from?

Steve.

 

 

Nothing very exotic Steve. It's known by all On30 modellers as "the Bachmann mogul", their first effort in the scale. The loco depicted is a Rogers mogul, a type that first appeared in the 1860's (or at least that's what Mr Wikipedia told me). It survives on the FVRR as the railroad keeps it for light duties, and they have a fondness for it....

Edited October 21, 2018 by chaz

[sb67]

Nothing very exotic Steve. It's known by all On30 modellers as "the Bachmann mogul", their first effort in the scale. The loco depicted is a Rogers mogul, a type that first appeared in the 1860's (or at least that's what Mr Wikipedia told me). It survives on the FVRR as the railroad keeps it for light duties, and they have a fondness for it....

Thanks Chaz, look forward to seeing it weathered.

Steve.

[chaz]

Obvious really...

 

 

If weathering powders are applied over a tray of some kind (here a rather nasty old school palette) the loose powder that falls from the model can be reused - and it doesn't stain your trousers or the carpet. I keep a small pot for this powder as it's usually a mixture of colours.

 

 

A train of six empty hoppers are being hauled back up the valley to the mine to collect the next load. my collection of twelve cars will be divided into two rakes. The empties will run in one direction, the loaded ones in the other. 

 

 

I have finished weathering seven of the hopper cars, the five remaining are at various stages but might well be finished by the end of the week.

 

This is the last posting relating to the weathering of the hopper cars, the next post will deal with making the little mogul look well used.

 

Chaz

Edited October 22, 2018 by chaz

[chaz]

Seven down, five to go.

 

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the lurid caboose, which will be weathered eventually.

 

Chaz

 

 

[holywell junction]

What an excellent thread thank you Chaz!

[chaz]

Many modellers will have an uncompleted model (or three) lurking in the cupboards waiting for some attention. Some time ago I had decided that I needed more modern (in BR steam terms) vans for Dock Green  to make the stock look more typical. I had made up five vans and given them a coat of paint and then rather lost interest - the focus of my modelling having shifted from British O gauge to my On30 Furness Valley. Over last weekend I decided to try and get four of the vans ready for the Peterborough show. As this means they must be ready to be packed away on Thursday night for loading into the van, I would need a pretty speedy way of weathering them.

 

Three of the vans are JLTRT resin cast SR vans, one even-planked, one with the two-width planks and one plywood. it's these three vans that are the subject of this post.

 

 

The underframes of these kits push in snugly into the one piece body. I had previously painted them matte black so I decided to treat them to weathering powders as a quick way to make them more convincing. Anything black tends to disappear into an amorphous blob with any detail largely lost to view - a very good reason for weathering.

 

 

I used four different Humbrol powders - rust, dark earth, black and smoke - although the latter was really confined to the bodies. You will need the surface of the kit to have a key - powders will not adhere well to a gloss surface. If necessary I add a matte varnish first - I find Vallejo acrylic resin varnish very good, thinned 50:50 with a good acrylic thinners and sprayed through the airbrush.

 

 

I usually add powders to a model on an old baking tray (Poundland!). This contains the powder and stops it spreading everywhere, staining the carpet, your trousers etc and also allows the inevitable spillage to be collected up for later use.

 

 

To save time I thought I would try "painting" the white end of the brake levers with white weathering powder. This has worked really well and given just the sort of worn look that can be difficult to achieve with small areas of paint.

 

A couple of suggestions for powders - rather than dipping a paint brush into the pot of powder and then carrying it straight to the model tap the powder from the brush onto a palette first - I put it onto the baking tray - then pick up small amounts and apply these to the model. It is very easy to apply too much and it's not always so easy to get it off. If you do get too much powder on the model don't brush it into the surface but shake or blow it away - a dry blast from an airbrush will remove most of it.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

The bodies had been painted with matte bauxite a while ago. I sprayed patches where the transfers were to go with Vallejo gloss varnish. Once the the numbers and letters were on I over-sprayed them with matte varnish.

 

 

Looking for quick solutions I used MIG "dark wash" to start the weathering. This is enamel based - presumably acrylics would dry too fast to be practical. Of course you can make your own wash but I need speed this week.

 

 

I painted the van side with the wash, ensuring that it penetrated around all the details with no gaps. With cotton buds I wiped the side removing much of the wash. All strokes of the buds were vertical so any marks remaining would confirm to the affects of the weather. If the wash starts to dry out a small amount of white spirit on the cotton bud will help.

 

 

I left the wash overnight to dry thoroughly and in the morning, to intensify the weathering effect, I added the Humbrol powder "smoke". This is a very dark grey and I prefer it to black for building up that steam-age sooty look.

 

 

Two vans compared. I'm happy with the one on the left - the other needs more work on it's chassis.

 

By the way - go easy on the rust! I do see some weathered rolling stock where rust predominates. Wood doesn't go rusty so the only rust on a wooden van should be on the metal parts or small areas of staining which rain has carried away from rusting ironwork. 

 

I should just add that you may well have different or better methods to weathering models. I detail my methods and hope they are helpful - it's up to you how you proceed.

 

Chaz

Edited December 4, 2018 by chaz

[chaz]

Following on from the previous post this is a note on roofs.

 

 

I avoid using my airbrush as much as I can but brush painting matte paint can be a problem. As you can see in the photo above brush marks can be obvious and a second coat does not eliminate the effect.

 

 

I add a second coat with a mop type brush using a vertical stabbing movement - artists called this stippling. This will leave some brush marks but they will look natural - part of the canvas texture. (sorry about the camera shake - not my best photo!).

 

 

The three SR vans with stippled paint roofs. Incidentally the paint is Humbrol acrylic #32 dark grey.

 

Chaz

[sb67]

Great stuff, thanks Chaz :-)

Steve

[chaz]

Great stuff, thanks Chaz :-)

Steve

 

 

Thanks Steve. You will have gathered that I am very much a convert to acrylics and weathering powders so it seemed a little strange to revert to enamels for the wash. However I am sure it's drying times that are crucial - acrylics might well dry too quickly to allow the work with cotton buds.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

I think it might be helpful for me to list the steps I took in painting and weathering the vans.

 

(* indicates drying/hardening time required - preferably overnight)

1. Look at photos of the real thing. Depending on the era modelled colour may be impossible to find.
2. Paint the van with bauxite, dark grey (for the roof) and black - enamels or (my preference) acrylics. Airbrush or brush. *
3. Spray gloss varnish on those areas where transfers are to be added. *
4. Apply transfers. *
5. Spray matte varnish over the transfers and any other parts that look glossy or satin. *
6. Look at photos of the real thing again.
7. Add an enamel wash all over the body and then clean most of this off using cotton buds. Do a section at a time. 
8. Add weathering powders to the underframe. This can be done earlier if it is a separate unit.
9. Add "Smoke" weathering powder (or a dark grey) to the body. Other colours (dirty brown) can be added. Be careful with rust.
10. Stipple a second coat of dark grey to the roof.  You can do this at any convenient stage after 4.
11. I usually fit couplings at this stage to avoid gumming up the delicate Dinghams with paint etc.
12. Place model on the track and assess. One way to see it afresh is to look at in a mirror (artist's trick) or you can photograph it - but beware of the known problem of cameras often being blind to the full effect of your weathering!

I must just say again this is my method but I don't think it's the only way or even the best. You can certainly do what I did when I started weathering - I talked to people, read the book, tried out various suggested methods and eventually settled on the recipes that suited me. After a number of years of working solely with enamels I am a recent convert to acrylics and powders. It's worth keeping an open mind.

 

Chaz

[sb67]

Thanks Chaz, I'm trying to use acrylic paints more but I still find that enamel washes are a lot easier to work with and they always flow freely without any surface tension.

Steve.

[chaz]

Thanks Chaz, I'm trying to use acrylic paints more but I still find that enamel washes are a lot easier to work with and they always flow freely without any surface tension.

Steve.

 

 

Yes, Steve. I suspect that washes are a special case and that acrylics are not very suitable. My wife has some "open" acrylics for her art work and these stay wet much longer but they are expensive. Whether they would answer remains to be seen but I suspect that even if they do the fact that they can take as long to dry as artist's oils negates one of the big advantages of acrylics for us.

 

Chaz

[chuffinghell]

Your weathering is superb!

 

Chris

[chaz]

Your weathering is superb!

 

Chris

 

 

Thanks Chris,

 

I ought to be able to wield a paint brush - in a former life I was an art teacher and later re-trained to become a design technology bod. The ideal mix for a railway modeller?

 

Chaz

Edited December 5, 2018 by chaz

[chuffinghell]

Thanks Chris,

 

I ought to be able to wield a paint brush - in a former life I was an art teacher and later re-trained to become a design technology bod. The ideal mix for a railway modeller?

 

Chaz

A combination that clearly serves you well

[Hal Nail]

Thanks Chris,

 

I ought to be able to wield a paint brush - in a former life I was an art teacher and later re-trained to become a design technology bod. The ideal mix for a railway modeller?

 

Chaz

 

I've always thought artistic flair is as much about being observant as actual brush skills - but I cant quite decide if the former is natural or learned!

[chaz]

I've always thought artistic flair is as much about being observant as actual brush skills - but I cant quite decide if the former is natural or learned!

 

 

Aah, the old nature or nurture poser. The jury is out on that one and, I suspect, will remain so. As an ex-teacher I should be firmly in the nurture camp (any of the skills involved in modelling can be acquired with teaching and practice) however casting my mind back to classrooms and pupils I have known I would have to add one caveat. A prerequisite would be a desire to learn and a willingness to put in the work required.

 

As an aside I did come across a truly awful example of weathering on this forum yesterday (no names - no pack drill) which made me wince and move hurriedly on. It would be rank bad manners to tell the modeller so one keeps mum.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

I was trying today to get back into modelling after one of those periods that affect all modellers from time to time. Feeling that I really must do some modelling I looked around for an icebreaker. This wagon had a broken tie-rod between the axle guards which meant I have never run it on Dock Green. I decided to sort it out.

 

 

I had some thin brass strip which was bought for this purpose. Drilling four holes in each one for some brass pins (0.7mm wire) made it easy to fix the ties without any risk of them falling off - the area of the glue joints is very small.

 

 

I blackened the brass with Casey's (I don't rate the Carr's product which I find very inferior).

 

 

Before I pushed the rods fully home I put a little superglue on the back - the glue only has to stop them sliding out, the wire pins make them very secure.

 

 

Looking at the wagon with its new metal tie-rods in place I reflected that it needed a more convincing weathering job - for a coal wagon it was just too clean.

 

 

I was happy with the interior. it was painted with Humbrol "Metalcote - steel" which was polished when dry and then had rust colours dry-brushed over the top. I did add some rust coloured weathering powders around the edges - it's worth remembering that the bare steel would corrode rapidly when exposed to wet coal which releases some very corrosive substances.

 

 

I wanted the wagon to look fairly new without the heavy rusting that characterised older steel opens. I used Humbrol weathering powders, black, smoke, rust and dark earth and DCC Concepts rich rust, but in small amounts applied with a small brush and then spread with a large "mop" brush. My intention was to tone down the BR wagon grey with some grime and hints of rust.

 

 

The white ends of the brake levers were touched in with DCC Concepts white weathering powder. I like the worn look that gives compared with white paint.

 

 

For the sake of variety I hope that I can substitute this longer wagon for one of the nine foot wheelbase wood wagons without causing a problem with the length of the coal train. I can't really test for this until I set up the layout at the next show. My fingers are crossed....  

 

Chaz

Edited December 28, 2018 by chaz

[sb67]

Great stuff Chaz, nice way to get back into modelling.

Steve.

[chaz]

Great stuff Chaz, nice way to get back into modelling.

Steve.

 

 

Thanks Steve. Next weathering project really ought to be one of my On30 locos.......hmmm. 

[sb67]

Thanks Steve. Next weathering project really ought to be one of my On30 locos.......hmmm. 

 

I'll look forward to that Chaz 

Steve.