Airbrushed Supermodels?

[daftbovine]

This is something that has always puzzled me, has anyone had a go at doing realistic body panels on locos? Some of us are obsessive about every little detail but most of our locos have beautifully smooth body panels and sometimes look like airbrushed supermodels. 

 

What really illustrates this point is photographs of Bulleid pacific Winston Churchill in the NRM which looks as though it has serious cellulite and could do with a good panel beating!

 

I suppose that if our models had wonky body panels they would just look wrong but I do think that sometimes they look just a bit too smooth.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I've seen it done in G scale...

 

 

 

These are the handbuilt masters from which castings were made.  I suppose it would be do-able in the smaller scale, but I imagine the smaller the scale the smaller the effect and the less likely it is to look convincing.

 

 

 

 

[Glorious NSE]

In HO scale - check the BN green boxcar with the orangey red door. That one was done apparently by layering thin plastic between the posts.
http://theweatheringshop.com/butchpast.html

I think on some prototypes it's possible to imply distortion by weathering - check the last image here, the weathering implies the dirt collecting on the warped car side.
http://theweatheringshop.com/jeffdrgw.html