Diagram 100 hopper in repainted condition

[Guy Chapman]

The NE diagram 100 hopper was originally painted dark grey then repainted early freight grey. Photos show that this commonly resulted in a three-colour livery of light grey, dark grey and rust. Here's an easy way of reproducing the effect.

1. Spray prime the hopper overall rust brown and allow to set
   
2. Spray with hairspray
   
3. Lightly sprinkle salt
   
4. Mist over with hairspray again, very lightly, to hold the salt (optional, works for me but not part of the traditional technique)
   
5. Spray dark grey and allow to set; an approximate shade is good enough in practice
   
6. Spray with hairspray
   
7. Apply heavier salt load, again mist over to hold the salt
   
8. Spray (for me, Railmatch early freight grey) and allow to set
   
9. Brush salt off with warm water and toothbrush or stipple brush
   
10. Apply decals
    
11. Clean paint away from wheel area (if running OO - the wheels are tight on the hopper door assembly and can rub if paint is too thick)
    

At this point you see the three-shade effect, with freight grey weathered off to NE grey, again weathered off to rust. At this point you can apply rust streaks, black ink wash, coal dust powder and other delights to taste. These are fine models, I have a train of 60 mixed riveted and welded diagram 100 hoppers and it runs cleanly through complex pointwork and a 9F hauls it up 1 in 40 with a 5' curve at the top, no problem at all. I haven't even needed to weight the hoppers to get them to run true.

 

Note that I build my hoppers like this: http://chapmancentral.co.uk/wiki/Railway/Parkside_PC80 - it may not be "correct" per the instructions but I have built a lot and this is the easiest way (for me) to get the right result; specifically, I can spray the underframe black and the hopper body grey and not have to faff about too much with masking. Point is, the hoper body does not have the underframe attached when painted, and that makes this multi-layer painting a lot easier.

 

 

I will post some pictures of the finished article but here's a taste, disappearing behind the Flying Scotsman.

 

[Fat Controller]

That's a very interesting way of obtaining the 'distressed' effect- what salt did you use? It seems to have been a very fine grade. I've been looking at some of the efforts I did in the mid 1970s, and have decided they need what my French chums call 'un relooking'- I'll give this method a try.

I'm glad to see someone else has had the problem of the back of the wheels rubbing the hopper sides- I thought it was an assembly error on my part.

[Allegheny1600]

Hello Guy,

Nice work! An interesting website, too! Thanks for the link as I have been very slowly building a rake of these, so I shall read and digest your methods.

Cheers,

John E.

[54Strat]

I've used this technique before with really good results. I also used rock salt to give a blockier appearance. To remove the salt I just picked and scraped it off and any further distress this caused added to the effect. I also found that the hairspray let me easily add scratches using a scriber.

 

Paul

[paul-dereham]

Superb effect. Recently read an article on using salt in this manner so I will give this a try.

[Guy Chapman]

That's a very interesting way of obtaining the 'distressed' effect- what salt did you use? It seems to have been a very fine grade. I've been looking at some of the efforts I did in the mid 1970s, and have decided they need what my French chums call 'un relooking'- I'll give this method a try.

I'm glad to see someone else has had the problem of the back of the wheels rubbing the hopper sides- I thought it was an assembly error on my part.

 

Sorry for the delay, missed the question! Just bog-standard table salt. You can make it finer by rubbing it, and that seems to be a side effect of the way I apply it.

[wirey33]

My brief experiments with salt have highlighted the following.......

 

Rock salt for big chunks of missing paintwork

Table salt for finer, pinpoint rusting

Table salt carefully soaked with water (an eye dropper is useful) until it starts to dissolve gives larger patches

 

Nice work Guy

[Guy Chapman]

My brief experiments with salt have highlighted the following.......

 

Rock salt for big chunks of missing paintwork

Table salt for finer, pinpoint rusting

Table salt carefully soaked with water (an eye dropper is useful) until it starts to dissolve gives larger patches

 

Nice work Guy

 

Or using a pipette, you can buy packs of 50 3ml plastic pipettes for pennies on eBay. They are so useful that every modeller should have a bag in their painting tool kit!

[class"66"]

Very interesting technique.....

[Guy Chapman]

Hello Guy,

Nice work! An interesting website, too! Thanks for the link as I have been very slowly building a rake of these, so I shall read and digest your methods.

Cheers,

John E.

 

How are you getting on? I've been busy so am only now finishing the last ten of my long train. Total is 60, and I have digressed to fit lights to a brake van (gallery) and the 9F that pulls the train (gallery)

[Guy Chapman]

One example in near-finished state with decals and weathering. The weathering process is:

1. Paint and apply decals
2. Apply AK Interactive "Rust Streaks" along all ribs and corners and other likely areas of streaking with fine brush
3. Wait for rust streaks to dry (~1h) and drag streaks with white spirit (I use a 5mm wide flat brush for this)
4. When rust streaks have dried apply weathering powders:
   1. Dark rust on solebars and W irons etc.
   2. Traffic dirt over rust and on lower body sides, ends and support fillets
   3. Brake dust on brakes
   4. Coal dust inside and over sides, applied around top and dragged down

I will do some stage pictures - done right (i.e. better than this particular one) the rust works particularly well on the side ribs of the riveted hoppers.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/2619-diagram-100-hopper-weathered/