Weather building before or after?

[Anonymous]

My question is when building a model building is it a good idea to weather it before you glue it together or finish it then weather it. I am doing a 1940's era switching layout in a heavy industial area so it's going to be dirty.

[thirdrail1]

Considering that it is the completed real structure that suffers the effects of weather, soot, smog, etc., I have found that you need to work with the completed structure to make weathering realistic.

[Anonymous]

Good question! I do mine when I am done with the structure, just like in the real world.

[BruceJob]

Here's another opinion: I prefer to paint and weather wall sections before assembly (all of my structures are styrene...mostly from DPM and Walthers), just to minimize the amount of handling. Its also easier to apply decals, dry transfers, etc. to a flat section rather than the finished structure.

Get a piece of cardboard and tape down some masking tape sticky-side up. Cut your wall sections off the sprue and press the wall sections onto the masking tape. Now you have a convenient mount to hold the wall sections as you paint and weather. You handle the cardboard, not the wall sections, thus avoiding fingerprints and paint on your hands (if you spray-paint). Working with the wall sections before assebly also minimizes your chances of dropping and breaking the assembled structure...a real heart-breaking experience!

[CNJ831]

I prefer to weather after the building is fully assembled. That way all the minor details (vents, chimneys, ductwork, etc.) on walls and roof are in place and get weathered uniformly along with the structure.

A word of caution might also be in order. Your post says,"I am doing a 1940's era switching layout in a heavy industrial area so it's going to be dirty." While it's "your railroad", over-weathering structures on layouts has taken on a life of its own over the years. Most urban scenes one sees in the magazines are not representations of any reality but rather excessive caricatures of a period.

It is extremely difficult to locate actual photos of extremely rundown, gone-to-seed areas of cities from the 1930's-40's-50's, at least to the degree often depicted on layouts. Soot-staining on trackside buildings, yes. A bit of cast off junk, ok. Rusting, you bet. But filthy, broken down, dumps of building still in daily use are much more a fantasy than a reality for the steam era. If you don't think so, check out period movies or historic photos. No matter what the economy or time frame (or theme of a 1930's-early 40's movie), whole areas of cities do not resemble the highly advanced state of decay so often depicted on steam or transistion-era urban layouts. The only exception I see are the film-noir movies of the late 1940's where such decay was depicted simply for "atmosphere".

No matter how many oohs and aahs over-weathered layouts may garner, they tend to have much more in common with Disney than capturing a real period in railroading history.

John

[thirdrail1]

Just like freight cars and locomotives, the secret to a realistic scene is rolling stock and buildings in various states of aging or "weathering". Just as every car in a train is not freshly painted or "on its last legs", not all buildings were completed on the same day and have had varying acquaintance with brush and paint. That said, most model scenes lack detail. And detail does not mean just "junk" or "trash".
Stores without signs simply did not exist!

[sumpter250]

Gregg,
At a recent show,digital photos were taken of my modules, and emailed to me. Looking at the pics,it
took a bit to realize that what was missing were signs! Advertising,traffic control,garage sale,lost pet etc., etc., etc.. Probably the best critic you can find is a photo of a prototype scene,which is similar to the scene you're modeling. Take a photo of the modeled scene, and compare to the prototype photo. What's missing in the modeled scene?!!!

[Anonymous]

Dave,
I find that if you weather after constuction it is a better looking model. For one if you weather beforehand and then you remove the excess glue from the finished design then it removes the weathering as well.