Simple Weathering

[Burlington Northern #24]

Guy Papillon

I came back to model railroading twelve years ago.  I now have over a hundred rail cars in my roster and I still have to weather any of them.  Till now I preferred the out of the box look instead of many weathered cars I could see on the web. But recently I began to appreciate some soft weathered cars I could saw on some posts on this forum.  Yesterday while in a LSH I bought a Bowser box car kit for the decent price of 9.99 cad. It is a nice kit but its shiny look is an incentive to give a try at weathering.

The problem is that I don't know where to begin.  I went on the Net and I saw a lot of different techniques: chalk powder, cosmetics powder, pastels, dry brushing, airbrushing. I don't want to experiment with all of those techniques although I understand that expert modelers use all of them and developed their skill with time.

I can scrap a few inexpensive cars in the process of learning but I want to keep it simple and get some kind of uniformity from one car to the other in respect of the car type and age of course.  

So the question is : Where can I find good basic information to begin with?

 

I would start with a photo of said car or one in it's class to gather an idea, then take whichever weathering method that you like and do that. I've used powders and dullcote, it's ok but I would like to get a new airbrush and compressor as I feel that'd better suit my needs. Powders and dullcote can make a mess.

[tomkat-13]

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/228415.aspx

I use any rust tone on trucks, India Ink wash, Powders, dry brush on body of cars. 

[AntonioFP45]

Kregan,

Outstanding look on that hopper! Weathered black freight cars especially stand out in a train due to the stark visual contrast between the colors. 

Just my opinion, but I've noticed in many photos that modelers with black rolling stock, such as hoppers and gondolas, tend to "underweather" them and appear as though that just rolled out of the manufacturing plant. 

kregan

For my first attempt I used  weathering powder.  It was easy to wash off if I made a mistake and once I was comfotable I started air brushing a little dirt, dust, grim, around the base, trucks, and couplers.  

The white streaks on the hopper and box car lettering is white weathering powder scrubbed into the sides with a short stiff paint brush.

 

A little weathering goes a long way, keep it simple at first.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Here's a loco I just did today. It's a Bachmann UP GP9 that I patched for the L&A. I added a bit of dirty yellow weathering powder for a subtle effect then sprayed it with Krylon Matte Finish to seal it.

 

[skray775]

For my first attempt I used  weathering powder.  It was easy to wash off if I made a mistake and once I was comfotable I started air brushing a little dirt, dust, grim, around the base, trucks, and couplers.  

The white streaks on the hopper and box car lettering is white weathering powder scrubbed into the sides with a short stiff paint brush.

A little weathering goes a long way, keep it simple at first.

 

[AntonioFP45]

Although I enjoy airbrushing, I also apply simple weathering washes to the underframes and trucks of my passenger cars with paint brushes. Very easy to do with acrylic (waterbased) paints.

Clear egg cartons and pill trays come in handy for this:

For a southeastern appearance on my passenger equipment I just use a few colors (Freight Car Brown, Aged Concrete, Dirt,) I mix each "wash" at a ratio of 20%-30% paint, to 80%-70% distilled water. With the frame upside down, I apply each wash with vertical strokes and let gravity do the work. Since the washes are very thin, capillary action enables the paint to run into even the smallest nooks and crannies. I allow each application to dry, which only takes a few minutes. I paint the faces of the wheels last.  I use the same steps for Walthers and Rivarossi underframes.

Imho, acrylics are easy to use and mistakes can be completely removed with a clean, wet cotton cloth. No fuss or smell to deal with. .

Although Pollyscale paints are pictured here, I also like Modelflex, MM Acryl, and artists brands such as Duncan.  Inexpensive acrylics that can be found in the arts and crafts sections of local department stores also work nicely.

[Guy Papillon]

Thanks to everyone.

Great techniques and tips. 

[doctorwayne]

Guy, I also bought a Bowser car which was a little too shiny for my tastes, even though it represents a car which would be fairly new on my '30s-era layout.
I first gave it a coat of Dullcote, then oversprayed the entire car with a very heavily-thinned spray of a colour similar to that of the car.  The painted doesn't have to match, but should be in the same tonal range as what's on the car.  I've found that 90-95% thinner works best:  this will tone-down the too-stark appearance of the white lettering on the darker background, but the low opacity will make it unlikely to leave the car looking too filthy.  However, if you want a too-filthy appearance, simply apply additional coats.
I followed that with a light spray of dark grey or black done as a shadow effect. You can find a little info on that here:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/227839.aspx 

but it's simply another overspray of heavily-thinned colour sprayed while shielding along the panel seams of steel cars using a piece of cardstock.

You don't indicate if you have an airbrush, but if you do and are not familiar with its use, get some cardboard boxes from your local supermarket, and break them down into separate panels, then use the un-printed sides for practising.  This is much cheaper than using cheap rolling stock, and much more useful for learning control of the airbrush and for seeing the results of various techniques and paint mixes.

 

EDIT:  Actually about the 7th or 8th edit attempting to get a working link.   The thread to which I've attempted to link is in the Layouts section and is entitled "What's a good % mix for base coat of grime on rolling stock?"

On the car shown above, the shadowing was done by placing the edge of the card along the rivet line just to the right of the PRR herald, with the card covering the area to the right.  A light spray is then applied vertically towards the exposed edge of the card.  Repeat this operation on all the seam lines until you reach the door, then reverse the position of the card (covering to the left of the rivet line) to do the panels to the left of the door. 

Wayne

[Catt]

I always start with a matte or flat clear spray for both the car body and the trucks (remove the wheel sets befor painting the trucks).Dri brush a muddy or rusty colour on the trucks catching the hight lites .If you have metal wheels paint the face of the wheels a rusty brown colour.You can also dri brush the couplers with a rusty colour.

This is how In start my weathering.I will run the cars like this for awhile then add more weathering.Unless your modeling a used abused and resold a dozen times freight car do as the prevous poster suggested and weather moderately.

[tatans]

There is only ONE rule of weathering:  ^{M  O  D  E  R  A  T  I  O  N}

[snjroy]

Bonjour Guy. Weathering is truly an art. I certainly don't master it, so I keep things real simple to prevent overdoing it. I follow Bob Hayden's technique in an MR article published years back ("Weathering freight cars"), re-published in "HO Railroad from start to Finish". I do the first three steps he recommends and that provides a really good start:

1) Apply a coat of dullcoat, as recommended by the others. As Hayden writes, this provides "teeth" for the other layers to come. Mask any windows if here are some on the stock you are weathering. Let it dry for at least 24 hours. I've heard that hairspray can also work, but I never tried it.

2) Paint the trucks with grimy black. I also paint the wheels, but not the part that comes into contact with the rails.

3) Mix 4 drops of grimy black with about one tablespoon of auto window washer (the blue stuff). Mix well and just brush the wash over the item. Brush from top to bottom like rain would do to the grime. Practicing on old stock is a good idea. I use steam power black for lighter colour cars, and grimy black for darker colours. If you don't like what you see, wipe it off and try another tone. Do it lightly first, and do another coat later if needed.

This should definitely kill the "toy" look of your cars and locos. It's real easy. I also work with chalks, but I prefer to drybrush VERY LIGHTLY after the wash applied above, especially the trucks. But frankly, unless you want a really rusty and gritty look, steps 1, 2 and 3 do a pretty good job. I also find that the chalks create a dusty look that's not always appropriate for our region (Quebec).

Simon

[BATMAN]

Good thread Guy.

I have one more question to add to the list. I saw a lot of You-Tube videos that showed weathering powders being mixed with water prior to application, and others being put on dry. What's the advantages of the two different methods?

[CP5415]

Guy,

The following photos are cars I've weathered using simple dollar store water based acyrlic paints, some water & a brush. AKA dry brushing.

Things you'll need using the above method, at least the items I used.

Paint - varying colours depending on the look you're after.

Water - Clean the brush, diluted the water based paints

Paper towel - to taked excess paint off the brush to "dry" brush the paint on.

I watched Allen McClelland use this method on a video I have of the first version of the V&O.

The above is an Athearn BB kit. The roof I worked the dark colour ( burnt umber ) until I got the look, waiting until the paint had dried a bit then brushing the wetter parts off. I then used a diluted lighter colour ( raw sienna ) to give the look of "new" rust.

The Maintenence of Way car was easy. Painted the roof black, then using a white wash, made the roof look faded. The sides, I had fun with & experimented until I got a look that I was happy with.

Dipping the brush in the paint, then "painting the car sides using a downward motion starting at the roof of the car, I work the paint down to the bottom. I then dipped the same brush in a container of water & did the exact same motion, working it until I got the desired results. It's best that you have some photos around to give yourself an idea of what "look" you're looking for.

[Bluegill1]

I started with these

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=Tamiya+Weathering+Master+Set

from:

https://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/weathering-133?category_id=8&type=article#.UxQN9P2SdvA

 

I also have went on  to use powders, airbrush, washes, etc..

But the tamiya is easy to start after spraying with dullcoat

 

[river_eagle]

you can do it all with decals

http://store.weatheringsolutions.com/

[Bluegill1]

Keep it simple to start,

Pick up a can of Dullcoat from your local Train shop, lightly spray your box car, this will take off the shine. Pick up some weathering powders and an assortment of cheap brushes. Do a search on this site, search all the how to videos that are avialable right here on this site.

Take some pictures of trains tha you see in person, search the internet for train photos, that'l give you ideas on what real trains look like in real weathered conditions.

Guy Papillon

but I want to keep it simple

Guy Papillon

but I want to keep it simple

There is no right or wrong when you start, but give it a shot.

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/110-3100

http://www.micromark.com/doc-obriens-weathering-powders-set-of-12-colors,7798.html

[dstarr]

Simple is to kill the plastic glossiness of the trucks and wheels.  Take the trucks off and give them a good wash with hot soapy water.  Dry well. Mask off the axle bearings with tape to keep paint out of them.  Spray with a flat paint.  Color can vary from rust red to greasy black.  Sometimes I use red auto primer, and sometimes dark gray auto primer.  Then brush paint the faces of the wheels.  Friction bearing wheels had enough oil leak onto them to keep them looking dark and greasy.  Roller bearing wheels stay dry, the roller bearings don't leak oil, and the wheel picks up enough mud and dust to turn a light tan dirt color. 

   Then while you have the trucks off, paint the undercarriage.  I mask off the sides of the car and the couplers with painter's tape and spray the underside with flat gray.  Sometimes I use light gray auto primer and sometimes dark gray.  I'll grant you that cannot see much of the underside when the car is on the tracks, but even the odd glimpse of glossy plastic or a shiny metal weight from the side spoils the illusion we are trying to create with our models. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The easiest weathering you can do is with weathering powders. If you overdo it or don't like it just wash it off and start over.

This car was done with an alcohol/black dye wash and a light dusting of gray powder. The objective was to make it look dirty and beat up but not make it a rust bucket.

At the other end of the scale is this GP7, a beat up old work horse that's showing it's age. It was done entirely with powders and clear flat spray.

 

[markie97]

I started by painting the underframe and trucks with grimy black and/or a 50 50 mix grimy black and rust. India ink and alcohol mix for the body or a light airbrushing of diluted dirt with a little heavier spray on the bottom portion of the car. A little light airbrushibng of dirt or india ink wash is a big improvement. If brushing make sure your strokes are vertical and parallel to the car sides.

That was how I started then experimented with more techniques like chalks and weathering powders. Templates to add airbrushed streaks etc. 

Mark

[CP5415]

Send me your email address and I should be able to help you out with a video I have

Cheers
Gordon

[Guy Papillon]

I came back to model railroading twelve years ago.  I now have over a hundred rail cars in my roster and I still have to weather any of them.  Till now I preferred the out of the box look instead of many weathered cars I could see on the web. But recently I began to appreciate some soft weathered cars I could saw on some posts on this forum.  Yesterday while in a LSH I bought a Bowser box car kit for the decent price of 9.99 cad. It is a nice kit but its shiny look is an incentive to give a try at weathering.

The problem is that I don't know where to begin.  I went on the Net and I saw a lot of different techniques: chalk powder, cosmetics powder, pastels, dry brushing, airbrushing. I don't want to experiment with all of those techniques although I understand that expert modelers use all of them and developed their skill with time.

I can scrap a few inexpensive cars in the process of learning but I want to keep it simple and get some kind of uniformity from one car to the other in respect of the car type and age of course.  

So the question is : Where can I find good basic information to begin with?