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USA ....freight car weathering ...


sunshine coast

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I have been posting my progress with weathering on the website Tony Sissons mentioned a while ago ...thought you might like to see the attempt so far ...

 

 

 

clean car and first layers ....

 

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after about 3 or 4 layers of oil paints and chalks to build up texture ...

 

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one thing about these latest Athearn boxcars is the stirrups are very very delicate ...hence they are all missing now !! :O

 

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Regards Trevor ... :D

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The MEC freight cars up to the mid to late eighties tended to be reasonably well cared for but very dirty ....it seems from photo evidence that it was during the nineties they went rapidly downhill...and of course nowdays with repaints from Guilford and Pan-Am,they are quite (appart from grafitti :angry: ) respectable again ...

 

this is the photo I based my boxcar on ...MEC 1989

 

M Graff...very nice job on the 40'... like the door scratches and faded lettering B) ..I presume it is a Branchline kit ...???

 

Regards Trevor .. :D

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Excellent weathering jobs on those cars. The yellow MEC scheme is quite hard to portray convincingly without going overboard. The paint tended to fade quite quickly, especially on the newer cars, and showed the dirt a lot, but then seemed to stop getting much dirtier. Scratches from the doors, especially cars with plug doors, made for some interesting effects because it would first scrape the grime away but then scrape through the paint and the scratches started to get rusty. The dirtiest of the lot always seemed to be the waffle-sided cars, there weren't that many of them but there seemed to be a rule that every train should have one.

 

I'm not sure Guilford's maintenance on freight stock was much different from MEC's, but the choice of white for boxcars wasn't perhaps very clever. I have two pictures of MEC9821 taken a few months apart, one in April 1984 and one the following winter. The car really went downhill very quickly, perhaps the prep work wasn't very thorough. But white really was a bad choice for boxcars.

 

MEC8663 was one of a series of cars (8600-8729) that were rebuilt in the Reading's shops in 1963 and then leased by MEC from Chicago Freight Car Leasing for 10 years, the lease wasn't extended and they were all gone by 1973, so never got repainted into the green scheme that most of the 40' cars received. I really like the rendition of scratches and minor rust on that car and the fading green lettering, very convincing.

 

Branchline's door isn't too accurate though, at least not for the cars as originally rebuilt. The ribs seem very heavy. The tack boards on the MEC cars were painted green and were located offset to the right hand side on the lower pair of ribs. The cars also acquired a triangular reinforcing gusset either side of the door, and the sill was extended to the second row of rivets on the left of the door which was probably widened during the rebuild.

 

Not a criticism of your work which is excellent.

 

(Source: Northern New England Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Sweetland, Morning Sun Books.)

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Nice Trevor. Well done.

 

You mention oil paints and chalks - what exactly are you using?

 

I also know what you mean about the steps.... I have many cars in that condition!

 

Hi Nick ,

 

I use ordinary artists oil paints....as cheap as possible.. mainly the umbers and siennas and sometimes black and white and the odourless thinners... the chalks are again artist chalks or oil pastels similar colours..again as cheap as possible ...these I scrape with a knife blade to a dust into a container..

 

the oils can be thinned and used as washes or straight from the tube for more solid areas of colour....the chalks can be used just as a weathering powder ..brushed or rubbed on ...or for areas of texture ..ie heavy rust...or wheels ..I use neat oil paint and a brush full of chalk powder together....

 

when doing your weathering, to start with go for a slightly darker colour than the one you first think ...it is surprising how a subtle mix looks better...don't be afraid to blend shades together or wipe off if it does not seem right ....the roof of the boxcar above was wiped back a couple of times before I was reasonably happy....

 

ealier attempt at the roof ...not too good .. :unsure:

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and remember that you have plenty of time to work on your project as the oils take days to dry :O ...when you are satisfied then the whole can be fixed with matt artists varnish ,dullcoat or your own favorite ...just use very light coats ..a soaking may reactivate the oils and turn it all into a thick wash .. :blink:

 

experiment ...that is the key to it all...oh ...and have fun .. :P

 

hope that all helps ...

 

regards Trevor.. :D

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Nick,

 

do have a go :D .....it is the ability to blend colours and add layers over time ..with the paint staying workable that is the great plus I find ..the hardest thing is keeping your fingers off the freight car while you are working on it :rolleyes: ..if it does not work out for you it will wash off with thinners ... ;)

 

Regards Trevor .. :D

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  • 5 years later...

Nick,

 

do have a go biggrin.gif .....it is the ability to blend colours and add layers over time ..with the paint staying workable that is the great plus I find ..the hardest thing is keeping your fingers off the freight car while you are working on it :rolleyes: ..if it does not work out for you it will wash off with thinners ... wink.gif

 

Regards Trevor .. biggrin.gif

 

 

I thought I'd give this thread a bump and post some pics of cars that I have been weathering with oils. I got interested a couple of years ago but only just this past 2 weeks decided to really give oils a chance. Some very helpful tips that I have recieved from guys on various sites.....1) squeeze paint onto a piece of card , it soaks up excess oil helping drying times, 2) use a blow-dryer to get the drying process started 3) put you model in the oven with the heat off but the interior light on....the bulb puts out just enough heat to warm the oven enough to really speed up the drying. 4) Glosscote.....I always Dullcoted all my models BEFORE starting the weathering process but a fellow modeller taught me to Glosscote first before weathering because it really helps the oil to flow when using oil washes to do fades and when doing streaks, such as rust or water streaks down the sides and then Dullcote when moving onto powders or acrylics.post-6759-0-88812800-1466604221_thumb.jpeg

post-6759-0-92472200-1466604297_thumb.jpeg

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attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

 

I thought I'd give this thread a bump and post some pics of cars that I have been weathering with oils. I got interested a couple of years ago but only just this past 2 weeks decided to really give oils a chance. Some very helpful tips that I have recieved from guys on various sites.....1) squeeze paint onto a piece of card , it soaks up excess oil helping drying times, 2) use a blow-dryer to get the drying process started 3) put you model in the oven with the heat off but the interior light on....the bulb puts out just enough heat to warm the oven enough to really speed up the drying. 4) Glosscote.....I always Dullcoted all my models BEFORE starting the weathering process but a fellow modeller taught me to Dullcote first before weathering because it really helps the oil to flow when using oil washes to do fades and when doing streaks, such as rust or water streaks down the sides. It really helps....attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

Looks very good. Quick query, should the word highlighted above be Glosscote?

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