Weathering styrene with wood grain detail?

[Anonymous]

On models of double sheathed boxcars and flatcars with wood decks, how do you give the wood detail that gray, or even grayish-red look that weathered wood has? Specifically, I'd like to know if you use pastel pencils or paint to do this?

Thanks,
Christopher

[Anonymous]

On my flat cars, I paint the wood deck roof brown and then I dry bru***he wood deck with a wite or gray color to highlight the wood grain. On a couple of cars I have finished the project with a VERY diluted india ink wash. I have has mixed results with the india ink.

[orsonroy]

I generally paint flat car decks and the interior if wood side hoppers and gons light grey, followed by a drybrushing of medium grey for the highlights. I then add a light wash of black to the entire car to tone it down.

I haven't heavily weathered a wood sided box, but I'd start with a medium to dark grey, like Krylon grey primer. moist bru***his with a much lighter grey (like Gull Grey), and let dry. Once the undercoat is done, drybrush on the railroad's car color in two layers. First layer should be the color full strength, and applied sparingly. The second should be lightened a bit with white paint (to represent faded paint) and applied more liberally. All metal should be completely painted with the faded paint (metal held onto paint longer). Add decals, and once they're dry, lightly sand them with 600-1000 grit sandpaper to thin and/or remove them, to create faded lettering. Once done, add a VERY light wash of black india ink thinned in 70% rubbing alcohol. Don't forget to paint the roof, either VERY peeled, or with the paint gone completely!

[CBQ_Guy]

Chris,

I did a couple of these cars using a gray lead pencil, board by board. Get a cheapo car and play around with this and see what you think. You can consider it a starting point to add more or other types of weathering, or just repaint or pitch it if you don't care for the appearance. I like to experiment sometimes with trying different techniques for weathering, and this is something I came up with several years ago.