Weathering Using Household Items

[mtmonks]

Hi All,

 

I am a modeler with little cash, and can't find any tips on how to do things without buying the specialist weathering paints etc. Can anyone help. The Outcomes don't necessarily need to look perfect or fully professional.

 

Thanks in Advance

[HLT 0109]

This is a rather big subject and the answers will depend on what materials your modela are made of and what effects you want to achieve.  If you are thinking about railway rolling stock then just making items look dirty can be quite effective and all you need is a thin wash of a water-based paint.  Use it sparingly, ie wipe it off after application so that the dirt remains in the crevices.  If items are to be handled frequently, you may need to seal the result with a matte or silk varnish.  However, everyone tends to have his/her own preferences and it is probably worth practising on something unimportant before tackling something that matters more.

 

I am sure others will contribute ideas for buildings and other structures.

 

Harold.

[The Johnster]

I’d second Harold’s comment about general weathering technique.  It is an easy thing to get the hang of; I use leftovers of acrylic paint and it can easily be lightened or darkened to taste.  You also have control over how dilute it is and how thickly you apply it.  

 

I wipe off with a bit of tissue; again, the extent to which you wipe off gives you control over the heaviness of the final weathering.  Wipe downwards from the top of the vehicle or building to create a rain-streaked look. 

 

A trick for very heavily weathered parcels vans is to clean the centres of the windows to show where station staff have rubbed away the filth to see what’s inside. 

 

More money savers; pound shop children’s paints and brushes, useless for painting but good for sweeping and general cleaning, and the paints are water based.  Wooden coffee stirrers, available at all good motorway services, supermarket cafes, and Burger King, all sorts of uses such as paint stirrers and pointy things, and cut lengthways in half to make plank loads, wooden buildings, and footboards for GW Dean bogies.  Leave them out in the garden for a few weeks and they’ll self-weather as well! 

[petethemole]

Pots of acrylic paint can be had cheaply at branches of The Works, The Range  and others. For weathering I use black, white and various browns (Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Earth Brown mainly) mixed as required and used for washes and for dry-brushing. Cotton buds are great for wiping washes off selected areas. If you still have a stock of plastic ones the 'sticks' can be used for scrap piping or wagon loads. Poundland sell packs of make-up tools including small brushes and sponges.

[RLWP]

4 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Pots of acrylic paint can be had cheaply at branches of The Works, The Range  and others.

 

This is where knowledge can substitute for money. Do some reading around paints and colours e.g: http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/colour_wheel.shtml 

 

When you know how colours work, you can get away with far fewer materials by mixing what you have

 

Richard

[alastairq]

Chalks.

Small bits of sandpaper.

One of those make-up brushes [especially as above?]

Even some fine powdered soot..[if one has a real chimney....even if it hasn't been used for eons?]

 

Easy to practice with..and easy to remove if not happy with the results.

 

I recall,almost 30 years ago now, attending a talk about weathering using chalks....at the end, the organisers distributed little film cans, with some pastels [chalks] of various basic colours, a strip of sandpaper....and a small makeup applicator, inside....free.... [bless the old NMRA?}

[brack]

I weathered a rake of 3 hudson skips using spices as weathering powder (turmeric, paprika, cumin and cinnamon). It smelled quite nice.

[HonestTom]

I actually made a short series of videos on the subject of painting and weathering on the cheap.

A heavily rusted Triang mineral wagon

Adding wagon markings

Weathering with cheap watercolours

Weathering with cheap eye shadow

[Matt C]

If you have a SWMBO hanging around, watch out for discarded makeup !  They have all sorts of powders, eye shadow pens, eye liners, etc and if mine is anything to go by they always seam to be buying expensive new ones as the old one 'goes off'   The browns, blacks and even buff  colours can come in useful for weathering etc  and of course next time you go down the club  you will look goooood   .  Oh and clear nail varnish, they never finish the bottle  and its great for coating metal motor parts in your loco to insulate against  shorts 

[The Johnster]

Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise.  And exfolieate...

 

Seriously, discarded make up is a very good resource; check her binning procedure for nail files, tweezers, eyebrow pluckers and the like which are very useful tools!

[HonestTom]

If you don't have access to discarded makeup, you can get some very cheap eyeshadow palettes online if you look around. I have three that I use a lot - one is matte blacks and greys (for soot), one is matte browns (rust and mud) and the other is a lot of silvery colours (exposed metal). None cost me more than £3 and I've got an incredible amount of use out of them.

[PatB]

Pastels make good weathering powders. Don't buy the good (=expensive) ones from art stores. The cheapo ones from craft shops, or the cheaper still ones in the school supplies section of stationery shops will do just as well. Anything aimed at kids rather than proper artists anyway. Browns and greys are probably the most useful sets to get (the real cheapies are always in sets). I find scraping with an old knife blade more effective than sandpaper for turning them into powder. They tend to lose their opacity more than pukka weathering powders when varnished but they're so cheap it doesn't matter if you need a couple of applications to gain the desired effect. 

[Geep7]

Cheap acrylic paint + a cheap supermarket brand of talcum powder = cheap weathering powder

The talcum powder on its own is great for weathering cement wagons.... and as a bonus your models will smell nice too.

[alastairq]

Salt.

[RLWP]

37 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Salt.

 

mustard, vinegar, pepper

[brack]

8 hours ago, Geep7 said:

The tal powder on its own is great for weathering cement wagons.... and as a bonus your models will smell nice too.

I forgot, I weathered a rake of 11 irish cement bubbles (built previous to the rtr model) using toothpaste mixed to a sort of slurry/wash.

 

[Campaman]

Leave some wire wool or a used brillo pad outside in the wet in a container to rust, turns into a nice rust coloured weathering powder.

[melmerby]

Places like B&M sell cheapo makeup, as do other places.