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Weathering Vehicles

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  • Member since
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  • From: Traverse City, MI
  • 266 posts
Weathering Vehicles
Posted by camaro on Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:07 PM

I recently picked up three Athearn freightliner truck and trailers.  I am not sure where to start with weathering or if much is really needed.  Could anyone lead me through how to weather a vehicle? The tractors and trailers are fairly modern haulers.  After walking around the loading docks at work, I was surprised to see that there isn't much damage or dirt on the trucks that that come in here. We out load near 14 to 20 vehicles per day and most of the Volvo/Freightliner tractors are clean.  The 53' trailers are usually dirtier. I'm not sure if I need to dullcote the truck and trailer and then apply chalks or India Ink washes.

 Any help would be appreciated.

Larry

 

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Posted by chutton01 on Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:42 PM

The tires (wheels) - jet-black glossy tires are only found in tire center showrooms displays - real truck tires that have travelled on the road tend to have a weathered/dark grey patina - and are certainly not glossy looking at the usual layout viewing distances - I like to weather tires w/ black/dark grey chalks & powders (brush on and brush off) - just this kills the shine, makes the tires look a bit worn & used, and really helps improve the apperance.

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Posted by BerkshireSteam on Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:11 PM

Pretty much with weathering the trailor, and even that is tricky. Freight shakers, specially newer ones, are a fun construction. Most of the item above the frame are actually not metal. Front fenders, bumper cover, gas tank covers, hood, the roof high rise, all fiberglass. I think even the little side flares that attach to the sleeper cab are fiberglass. Gas tanks are aluminum, wheels are aluminum, typically any rear fenders are either aluminum or stainless. The frame and major suspension pieces are always painted, and if it's newer chances are the rear suspenion is bagged so there are just giant rubber air bags instead of springs to rust over. Air resevoirs I think are usually aluminum, but I can't tell because more often than not they are painted. With the rig you are more or less limited to blackening of the very top of the exhaust stacks, dull coating it as if it's a flat paint job instead of shinny, and adding dirt if the trucker doesn't care about the truck and doesn't bother washing it. Even the trail has its limits. You didn't say what kind of trailers so I will stick with the basic ones. Tankers would not be fun. Most of the time they are made of stainless steel tank and steel frames, with aluminum trays/storage boxes for equipement, and modern trailers use aluminum wheels. Now's the time I will mention pretty much any rig that represents an early 90's semi and newer will have aluminum wheels. Only the most severe of duty trailers would have steel wheels, and I will get to them. Box trailers (or van trailers) and reefers are no fun either. Floor is very thick plywood fastened to a steel frame, the sides are either steel or aluminum panels with matching material ribs. Alot of them are aluminum, and I know this because generally if you look inside of a van trailer it is nice and shiny, unpainted. Generally in the semi service steel is painted and not just left untouched. I just realized I keep saying that.

Your luckiest shot would be with older trailers. They tended to use steel wheels, but not many newer companies use them. The wheels are stupid, cheap, and makes me suprise they even last. They are basically a pair of steel rims (like if you were to cut out the center of your wheels) with tires mounted on, and heavy steel center piece that uses 'tabs' to basically clamp on the edge of the rim and squeeze it between the 'tab' and the center piece. I always see these style wheels rusty, chipped paint, scratched to heck. Flat beds and low boys are your best bet, more so low boys. The low boy goes along with the same concept of rail flat cars and depressed center flat cars. They have the center portion lower so they can fit taller cargo with out disruption. Items like construction equipment are generally loaded onto low-boys. I've seen escavators so big and heavy that they had to be loaded onto a low-boy with 4 axles and hauled around by a 400-500hp rig with 3 rear axles plus a tagger. I shouldn't have said that now I need to explain. A tagger axle is also called a pusher axle, they are unpowered axles, generally with much smaller wheels on them (more like what you would see on a 1 ton pick up), and usually mounted on a cantaliever suspension design with 2 sets of air bags, one to inflate and "push" the axle to the ground for added weight distribution (4 more tires on the ground) and another set of air bags to inflate and do the opposite, "push" the axle back up so the wheels are off the ground.

But back to subject at hand, as said your best bet for weathering beyond making it look dirty or having chipped paint, would be a trailer. A van trailer comes to mind particularly. The main frame underneath, the wheel boogie (which may or may not be adjustable) and the stand are best places to add rust. Not too much, basically model a surface rust coating. Also the rear "bumper" if you want to call it that. The king ping gets a nice greace coating from the semi's fifth wheel so nothing would be there. And, if it has a spare tire cage or spare fuel tank, a little rust there. You could model the entire tire cage with a surface rust, the tank would be just like the semi's made of aluminum or stainless, so just a little rust coating on the mounts. The wheel boogie could get a full on rust coat, actually paint it rust color. For clarity, the boogie is the portion the axles attach too. Van cars either come with a leaf spring suspension, where the leafs can be weathered with rust, or an air suspension. The axle tube and all that would again most likely be painted. Now with the frame of the trailers and semu you could do some weathering patches, say a small patch (or brush dab) here or there to represent a part where paint has been chipped off. Well have fun reading all that and, try to have fun weathering. I would look for like a dump truck though, the dump body on them almost ALWAYS has some rust. In the little nooks and crannies made by all the steel plating, and as I just said the dump body is made of steel. The inside of the dump may not even be painted, but the outside probably would be. But with all the things that a dump truck can haul around, quite a bit of that material can contain moisture which could seep out into the dumper body and start to oxide any bare steel very quickly.

  • Member since
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  • From: good ole WI
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Posted by BerkshireSteam on Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:18 PM

Well it took so long to type my first post I didn't see the one posted before me. Another tip with the tires comes from the 1/24 1/25 auto modeling world. Take the tire tread to a piece of sand paper to give it a used look, probably 80 grit. I imagine if you use a finner grit like 220 or 240 you could do it to the rest of the tire too. I would be sanding it instead of trying to take out chunks with the course grit. It would also take the shine away. I spent so long on the last post I forgot to talk about the tires.

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Posted by camaro on Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:39 PM

The trailers that I see at work are almost entirely 53' reefers. However, they come into this facility with dry goods or refrigerate ingredients and haul out frozen product. We normally have 35 to 40 trailers setting in our yard. I will have to take a drive down there and check out where the dirt accumulates.

  • Member since
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  • From: OH
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Posted by BRAKIE on Thursday, April 16, 2009 2:11 PM

camaro

I recently picked up three Athearn freightliner truck and trailers.  I am not sure where to start with weathering or if much is really needed.  Could anyone lead me through how to weather a vehicle? The tractors and trailers are fairly modern haulers.  After walking around the loading docks at work, I was surprised to see that there isn't much damage or dirt on the trucks that that come in here. We out load near 14 to 20 vehicles per day and most of the Volvo/Freightliner tractors are clean.  The 40' trailers are usually dirtier. I'm not sure if I need to dullcote the truck and trailer and then apply chalks or India Ink washes.

 Any help would be appreciated.

Larry

 

 

Larry,As you notice there isn't much "weathering" to do on trucks..I suggest painting the tires grimy black and maybe some exhaust streaks along the side of the trailer along the top directly behind the stacks and 2-3 light cotes of dullcote.

 

The inside of the mud flaps should be dirty..The ICC bar(this actually locks the trailer into the dock lock.) should be in good condition after all a trailer that can't be locked into the dock can be rejected-in fact it would be rejected where I work as a forklift operator for 16 years...I would not unload a trailer that was rusty looking-the floor could be weak...We would use laborers to unload the trailer by hand-very time consuming and didn't sit well with the management..

 

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

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Posted by chutton01 on Thursday, April 16, 2009 2:22 PM

Heh Offline MILW-RODR, don't feel too bad - I forgot to mention sanding any flash/seams off the tires before weathering so it's good you did.

Anyway, the OP should (if he hasn't already) head to the http://www.1-87vehicles.org/ page, and take a look at those models on display - some are absolutely mind-boggling. I'll put in a word for Chester, he really knows how to weather (maybe overweather).  There's a corresponding yahoo group for 1-87 vehicle modeling, and you can get lots of good tips there.

Recently I've seen some really nice 'worn-away metal patch' modeling, maybe it was done via the metal-paint=>rubber cement=>body paint method, but it doesn't look like it.

But really, for trailers that are in use, but well maintained, usually weather the tires a bit, some dark weathering on the roof and a bit on the side where the truck exhaust is, some 'dust' along the bottom of the trailer, grease spots on the king-pin and maybe the hinges (n/a if it's a roll up door - but do weather the locks), and if the trailer looks glossy at a distance of, say 1foot, a light overcoat of dullcoat (or semi-gloss if a factory new trailer) is needed.  Don't go overboard w/ heavy weathering, patched sides, rusting frames, mud packs, etc, unless the trailer is meant to represent one parked in the back lot and forgotten or used for storage (in which case, heat up the tires a bit, and squash down to represent flat tires - almost every trailer I've seen consigned to 'storage shed duty' has flat tires after a few years).

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Posted by tomkat-13 on Thursday, April 16, 2009 4:16 PM

I use chalk & washes of india ink-alcohol

 

I model MKT & CB&Q in Missouri. A MUST SEE LINK: Great photographs from glassplate negatives of St Louis 1914-1917!!!! http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/kempland/glassplate.htm Boeing Employee RR Club-St Louis http://www.berrc-stl.com/
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Posted by RedGrey62 on Thursday, April 16, 2009 8:17 PM

Occasionally, you'll see "rooster tails" on the back half of the sides of trailers where the road grime was thrown up by the wheels.  It is usually fairly subtle because the mudflaps take care of most of the grime.

Here is a great site full of truck pictures if you need inspiration.

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/trucks.htm

Ricky Keil

 

 

"...Mother Nature will always punish the incompetent and uninformed." Bill Barney from Thor's Legions
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Posted by lvanhen on Friday, April 17, 2009 7:53 AM

If you're modeling the "transition" era, or 1950's - 1960's, motor vehicle inspections and emissions were not as stringent as today, and it was common to see exhaust streaks along the top of trailers, heavy at the front, not so heavy back further.  Diesel engines were known for their black smelly exhaust - I used to get sick to my stomache following a bus!!  My My 2 cents 

Lou V H Photo by John
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Posted by Ole Timer on Friday, April 17, 2009 8:40 AM

       LIFETIME MEMBER === DAV === DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS STEAM ENGINES RULE ++++ CAB FORWARDS and SHAYS
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Posted by Buildy on Friday, April 17, 2009 12:11 PM

 Depending on the area and time of the year,esp winter time,trucks can get pretty grubby.

Here I did a Conrail trailvan contrasted with a brand new Overnite Tractor.

 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/millerracers2000/2182963597/sizes/l/in/set-72157603673214706/

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