I just finished the Walthers Trainline Factory kit. Got the "metal" roof weathered pretty easily with AIM powders (black, brown and rust coming off the metals stacks) and india ink wash. But what I am struggling with is what to do about the siding. The model comes painted an ugly tan color. I already dullcoated the whole thing. But I am afraid a black wash might be too dark. Also, I don't own an airbrush, I prefer washes, paint and powder. Any suggestions how to get a realistic weathered look on plastic kit sides? MRVP has tons of videos on weathering locos and rolling stock but is rather sparse on good weathering of plastic structures!
Hmm factory and ugly in the same sentence sounds perfect to me.
Get some Citadel ogryn flesh?? or another water based brown-ish wash dilute it about four to one or a bit more maybe with water and also get a shade of paint as close to the wall tan as you can.
Liberaly slop the diluted wash with a big brush on the model allowing it to flow down the walls once done gently remove any exsess with a small brush and kitchen towel.
It MUST now be left twenty four hours to dry out properly literaly don't touch don't do anything to it for twenty four hours.
Then a dry brush with the tan colour job done.
If you can get inside the building a mix of PVA white glue and the diluted wash more wash than glue can be put on the windows, and it rubbed with a cotton bud to create circular areas that have be cleaned well sort of with a rag and the windows will look dirty.
Washes come in more colors than just black and brown shades have a look at what the wargames manufacturers do in this area quite a lot.
Although Wargames and not Railway related have a look at Black Magic Craft video's on you tube.
What he achieves on wargames structures is pretty impressive and the painting methods can to some degree cross over to model railways.
Thats my 50c worth
regards John
Yeah I just looked at a photo on the Walthers site and I hear you about the tan color. It isn't just the color itself it is the boring uniformity of the color.
Is that supposed to be wood siding? If so here is what I do for an abused "wood" flatcar decks, following the advice in various articles, and it should work for a weather beaten structure too.
It is already tan, so I'd spray paint (rattle can) the sides light gray (masking if necessary). Then take a suede brush or other stiff metal brush and vigorously rub straight up and down (NOT sideways) to both create a deeper wood grain and to in essence wear away much of the gray paint. Really attack the sides with vigor (on flatcar deck I use the tang of a file to really harm the deck).
Then a spray application of DullCote. Let dry.
Then a pump spray application (I keep old spray bottles from various household products) of a mix of isopropyl alcohol and india ink. When the alcohol falls on a DullCoated surface it lightens it and creates something of a frosty look. Don't worry about this. The india ink should find all the vertical lines you created by using that metal brush. Then using the small sponges I found in the makeup/beauty section of the drug store or dollar store, I apply powders of a color for the building, perhaps barn red? Be thorough.
Then DullCoat again - that frosty look from the alcohol and very likely most of the red or other color powder disappears but some of it stays. It may need one more powdering of color and final DullCoating.
The goal is to create a surface that looks like it was painted, once, eons ago but is now gradually become more like bare wood, and mostly of a drift-wood gray at that. Whatever tan remains should be darkened and less boringly uniform and it too represents wood. Sort of like a very old barn.
Dave Nelson
Walthers tan isn't a very good building color. When I find that color in a kit, I always use rattle can spray of some different color before I assemble it. I mask the joining surfaces and anything else that will be painted a different color before spraying.
Signs and decals on the walls help to break up the monotony of monochrome buildings.
Make every building your own. Every modeler has the ability, maybe even the responsibility, to take a common kit and make it unique.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
rrlcommishThanks guys those are all great tips! Headed to the basement now...
We expect a full report ...
Walthers tan is NOT a good color I agree, and they seem to use it a lot in that line of structures, which is itself a reason to paint over it.
But a big part of what we dislike about the color is actually the texture, that waxy almost translucent plastic look. It is amazing for example how different plastic of that color, or the yellow that Walthers is also fond of for their low end structures, can look when the INSIDE of the structure is spray painted black or dark brown.
I searched for that kit on line, and if its the kit with 2 large outdoor tanks under a shed roof (this one), then it's the old Model Power Heinz Pickle Factory (it may well have been AHM or whatever manufacturer beforehand). I had one in the 1980s, painted the bright yellow walls a darker brown color, the roof a dark grey, the fake looking wood was...kinda left alone, and hit the entire kit with some black-wash. I don't even recall why I brought it, except it was reasonably priced and filled a space. It is gone now, although pieces of it roam around my scrapbox to maybe one day be used.If it is not that kit, then disregard this message anyway.
You could also do a whitish wash, to look like faded white painted siding, followed with a darker or greyish wash, to highlight any joints, imperfections, etc.
Mike.
My You Tube