billrowe wrote: My advise is to weather very lightly. I don't know why, but heavy weathering to me is distracting and unconvincing. Maybe weathering needs to be scaled back 1:87? By A little, I mean a graduation from heavier on the bottom (trucks, wheels, and underframe) to a lighter weathering just above the wheels, and maybe some subtle weathering (including some soot) on the roof.Subtle weathering can knock the freshly painted just out of the shop off the model. To me, heavy weathering, even based on a 12:12 photo, looks overdone and is offputting.Of course, this is my preference, not yours. Your mileage may vary.
My advise is to weather very lightly. I don't know why, but heavy weathering to me is distracting and unconvincing. Maybe weathering needs to be scaled back 1:87?
By A little, I mean a graduation from heavier on the bottom (trucks, wheels, and underframe) to a lighter weathering just above the wheels, and maybe some subtle weathering (including some soot) on the roof.
Subtle weathering can knock the freshly painted just out of the shop off the model. To me, heavy weathering, even based on a 12:12 photo, looks overdone and is offputting.
Of course, this is my preference, not yours. Your mileage may vary.
Oooh, I touched a nerve Oh well different strokes and all that...
It's called age, often the product of extreme wear and tear. Get off that mainline where them shiny engines roam and check out them private industrial lines, lots of engines where the only thing holding them together IS the rust and grime, you'll see....my little Grimezilla is not overdone at all, if anything, its actually kinda restrained.
Have fun with your trains
Dont be afraid to make one or two truely Fugly
Hi,
As a famous painter said on his tv show......... "you can always add, but you can't take away". In that line, I would lightly weather at first, run it awhile to get used to it, and weather again if you find its too light.
FWIW,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Great website link, mopac57. I had no idea it existed.
You can see the prototype photos I included with the original post above. They are from http://www.railpictures.net/ which is another great link for those who don't know about it.
However, I am also going down the street to the division yard of the CNR here to snap some photos close up of the clean and mostly not-so-clean locos they run by the house. I can make those large format and put them up on a screen as I am working.
BTW, all you need to make a link like that active is to type the http:\\ in front of it.
Use a prototype photo if you can. Let the real world be your guide. There should be plenty of photos available online for just about anything--locos, rolling stock, etc. My advice would be to study the prototype a good long time--and really pay attention to how dust, dirt, and rust collects and develops on real RR equipment.
Go to modeltrainsweathered.com and see how the pros do it. Plenty of ideas and inspiration, along with some tips. You'll be blown away by the skill and talent exhibited on the site.
(My apologies--I don't know how to make the link an active one.)
do you guys think it would be possible to weather some cars and engines with spray cans as opposed to using an airbrush? I thought about this the other day, because i want to apply a base weathering coat of some sooty grime, but i dont have an airbrush and the stanchions/handrails are already installed and glued, thus making brushing on some powders a problem...
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
I've never washed a prototype locomotive, but I've washed a lot of cars, and watched how a truck wash works.
Unless you hire a detailer, some spots always get missed, whether doing it by hand, or using a machine. If you conjure up some super wash technique that gets every speck of dirt, then the level of clean won't stick around very long after a return to service. Some things get dirty real fast.
If realism is your goal, it's hard to beat prototype photographs as your guide. In the absense of road number matching imagery, let the hard to ash areas and the early road grime be your guide.
I haven't weathered any locomotives yet, it seems like a very commtting move. I do know that artists pastel chalks all wash off with just water, except black, which seems to be waxy and doesn't come off with soap and water. I'll probably go for minimal weathering, at first anyway, with chalk, but not black. That way, at least the illusion of a do-over or fresh start is still maintained. Then I don't have to sweat over potentially hosing the appearance of an expensive, hard to find, well running locomotive. If I later decide it looks fantastic with the weathering in place, a little Dullcote should render it permanent.
I've weathered them mainly with chalks. Here you see my HowTo:
http://www.westportterminal.de/weathering.html
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
Ah, thanks, fellows.
As in all things, moderation. There are exceptions and I think the idea of a mix is good, and my passenger fleet will be kept nice and neat.
I like the look of those Soo Line locos!
I would go light on the weathering because it is very easy to go overboard. do some light weathering on a couple units, then take pictures of them and see how they look on your layout under your lighting conditions. If it isn't enough do the next couple a bit heavier. You can always add weathering, but its a bear to take off.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
As mentioned, it can really depend on the particular road, era and actual use of the unit being weathered. Most RR in their hayday took pride in their fleet. Units were well maintained and washed regularly. Passenger sets were the pride of the RR. These shiney rolling logos kept pristine as much as possible. As some RR started to come into harder times, so was the gradual delcine. Locos showing faded, peeling soot covered paint became more common. You will notice that many of these are later simple dipped type paint schemes. Long gone some of the exotic difficult and pinstriped beauties we come to know. This isn't always the case and won't follow suit with all roads.
Certain type equipment will just show much more weathering, coal haulers, yard switches etc.
Look at Western Maryland for example. This RR had impeccible standards for maintaining their roster. Even the coal haulers were washed and don't know actual mainainance schedule, "waxed". Chessie came along and let it slide somewhat (you may hear the mention of "Death to the Kitty". Many WM modelers are very upset that such a RR fell to such a demise. I model Chessie, among others, and feel the same about "CSX". Horrible maintainance for equipment and trackwork. This is considered dirty by WM standards and will probably get a bath soon.
This is a few years later out in sevice under Chessie, this dirty power will stay this way for a while
Many modelers don't really like to go too heavy on dirtying up all their equipment if at all. To make most models look at least a bit more realistic, I will at least weather some grime, dust on the trucks and pilots and maybe some light soot here and there. Unless a unit was freshly rolled out of the paint shop they all showed some kind of dirt. A coat of dullcoat, or as I do at times a mix of dull and gloss for a bit of satin for some sheen. I have 55 and 70 ton B&O hoppers that are in all degrees of weathering showing coal dust, road grime and rust. A few units, mainly older Fs and geeps, SD7s are weathered very heavily. My passenger Es and Fs are kept almost pristine and only show a hint of road grime on pilot, trucks, skirting and fuel tanks.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Otis,
I haven't weathered any of my locomotives yet, so take this for what's it's worth. Common sense says: Do NOT weather everything the same. Let there be a "variety" of clean and dirty locomotives on your layout. That will had to the realism.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
This depends on era, railroad and more.
I've seen SOO has some dirty engines. So I did:
My railroad has not so heavy weathered engines:
You can still see some dust at the trucks.
Hi, Otis:
You mentioned that Southern Pacific is one of the railroads you model - as a general rule, SP has about the dirtiest locomotives I've ever seen. I'm sure that's partly because of the environment they function in (lots of tunnels, etc., which would tend to leave soot everywhere on the locomotive exterior), but BN also has many tunnels in the northwest, and their equipment seemed cleaner to me (though I do recall seeing many sooty BN units as well). It's just my opinion, of course, but I'd base my weathering decisions on some model-type criteria. For example, I would 1) more heavily weather model locomotives that are of older types (say an SD40-2 would get heavy weathering while an SD70 would have only light weathering around the trucks and roof exhausts; and 2) I would be inclined to more heavily weather any locomotives I had that came out of the box with lower-quality paint jobs. That would help disquise the lower quality locomotives, while emphasizing the better paint on more expensive units. As I said, just my opinion, of course. Good luck!
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I did see a previous thread on this, but thought I would ask anyway?
I am nearing the point in layout building to start weathering the locos. For the past four years I have been near the BCR (now) CNR locos as they travel back and forth to the British Columbia interior. Based on that I was about to seriously grime up everything I own. I thought what I was seeing was typical.
Then I read in a thread about railroads taking some pride in their appearance and I noticed that many railfan photos showed fairly clean equipment. Seems like lots of photos of BNSF show clean equipment anyway.
Now, there is nothing clean about the locos in the division I live beside. And, of course, CN has no passengers to keep in mind. However, I am not modelling the local division and I most of my locos are in fact PRR, UP and Soutern Pacific.
What do you think? Are the photos I am seeing of clean BNSF and many other lines in the USA typical? Is the local CNR division particularly slothful? Or is it just hit and miss with the routine maintenance as some of the photos below show.....with one clean and one grimey loco in a team?
I don't really mind making everything very dirty...but not if it isn't typical.
(THE PHOTOS BELOW ARE FROM THE WEB AND THEY ARE NOT FROM MY REGION. UNFORTUNATELY I DON'T HAVE ANY OF THE LOCO TRAFFIC TO UPLOAD WHEN I THOUGHT OF THIS POST)