weathering with chalks?

[enginear]

Some of the best weathering I've seen was done with chalks sealed with dullcote or matte? I want to weather my challenger but I don't have the ..... guts to. I was thinking of trying chalks and if I did not like the look I could wash it off? anyone know how to do this?

[kstrong]

You can easily wash chalks off before you set them with the matte finish, but it gets a bit more problematic after that. I know some folks have claimed success removing excess weathering after it was sealed by washing the weathered model with alcohol, but I've not tried it myself.

My suggestion would be to find a sacrificial box car and experiment. You'll find that when you go to seal the chalks you've applied to that "perfect" look, the matte finish seems to remove about half of it, leaving you with a car that's not nearly as weathered as you had thought. That's the nature of chalks. It'll take a bit of practice to figure out how far to "overweather" your equipment so that when it's sealed, it looks like you intend it to.

If you're considering chalks, you may also want to look into Bragdon Enterprises' weathering powders. These aren't chalks, but but some other pigment powder with a kind of binder mixed in that allows it to stick to the surface and doesn't really need to be sealed. You still may want to for protection from the occasional rainstorm, though. I've found that sealing these powders doesn't diminish the effect nearly as much as overspraying chalks.

BTW, part 3 of my painting series covers weathering, including powders, washes, and drybrushing.

Later,

K

[Anonymous]

I tried chalks, and didn't really like the results (probably more my lack of talent than the chalks). Since then I've used paints for large scale models, with which I'm fairly satisfied. First you paint the whole model like it was brand new, then paint in the drips, runs and rust spots (a bit brighter than you want them) with a brush.....Then lightly overspray the whole model with brown, grey and black primers. Add a bit extra grey and black from the top to simulate falling ash, and a bit more brown (light tan if you can find some) up from the bottom to simulate kicked up dust. Finally paint on a bit of grimy black around the chimney or exhaust openings with a brush and you are done. It's not award winning weathering for photo contests, but looks pretty good from about 3 feet away and it's fast if you need to do a dozen cars at a time. It also doesn't smear, fingerprint or run.

Thought I'd add a pic...I did these last night.

 

[Anonymous]

I finished this today...