Weathering?

[Razorclaw]

How does one weather a vehicle, or a building or a train/boxcar? I keep reading about weathering this and that, but noody tells us how ya do that. Help?

[Anonymous]

I use chalks and washes. but im going to start expirimenting with my airbrush. You can either buy chalk in sticks which you file into a powder or you can buy already powdered chalks. I use Doc Obriens http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=81632 Remember, if you use chalks you must seal it with dullcote or it will just rub off on your fingers.

[cefinkjr]

Way back when we used dirty paint thinner. You know -- the gross looking crud you get after cleaning a lot of brushes with a lot of dark colors. I'm NOT recommending that. Just offering it for its chuckle value. [:D] I've also used oil paints (looks great but drying time is measure in months if not years), casein colors, real dirt, and real coal soot (we had a coal furnace when I was a kid).

More recently, I've been using artists' acrylics and/or chalks with very good results. Which and how much of each I use is a matter of how I feel and the effect I'm trying to achieve. This is about as close to art work as you're going to get without painting backdrops.

I'm weathering a lot of cars for a friend's very large railroad and he gave me a new (to me) product for weathering called Weather System from Bragdon Enterprises (http://www.bragdonent.com/index.htm). This is a set of very fine powders with a pressure-sensitive adhesive included with the colored powder. You use them much like chalks but only with a dry brush (you can use water with chalks). The advantage with the Weather System is that, because of the 'built in' adhesive, there is no need to overspray with something like Testor's Dull Coat or Krylon's Matte Finish as you must with chalks. The down side is that there is no removing these powders. Once applied, they are PERMANENT. (With chalks you can remove excess or even start over if you don't like the looks of what you've done.) I think there's also a problem with the Weather System in achieving very subtle weathering -- weathering that nobody notices until they compare the car to an otherwise identical car that has not been weathered. Then again, I've just started using this stuff; maybe a little practice will let me get some more subtle effects.

While on the subject, does anyone know of a source of casein colors? These were artists' paints that came in small tubes. The paint, I believe, was somehow milk based (hence the name) and was water soluble even after it had dried. The beauty of these colors for weathering was that they were extremely translucent; even more than acrylics. You could thin the Burnt Sienna with water to make a rusty wa***hat would not cover lettering. I've been using the past tense because the last time I asked for them in an art supply store, I was told they weren't made any more. If anybody else knows better, please let me know where I can get casein colors again.

Chuck

[Anonymous]

A good 'quick & dirty' weathering method that just takes some of the shine off the plastic is to use an ink wash. Put a couple of drops of black India ink into a bottle of rubbing alcohol (enough so that it's grayish-black), and brush it on with a flat paintbrush. In some cases it may be all you need for 'fairly new' equipment; for the rest, it at least tones down the colors and plastic shine a bit until you get around to doing a real weathering job with chalks, airbrush, or whatever.

Also check the 'how to' articles in the Modeling links off the main page here -- there's some articles in the 'construction projects' link on weathering.

[Anonymous]

i have been using a lot of chalks that i picked up at my local train fair...have all of the colors...i just dry bru***hem on and seal em up with some dullcote....they look pretty damn convincing....although i am also tooling with the new airbrush now......

[Anonymous]

My way may not look as good as the others', but it is much quicker, and a whole lot easier, and doesn't look too bad when you're done either. I just use several colors of spray paint. A little gray primer, some brown, and just a touch of black will make some of the best rust you have ever seen. I have rusted white plastic, black plastic, and silver metal using this method, it works pretty well. The best part is, if you mess up, a little more of any one color will probably fix it. Just remember to spray it somewhere you don't mind a little extra color on the concrete.

Good luck,
Greg

[Anonymous]

I use a combination of methods when weathering cars, which includes acrylic paints, india ink washes, and commercial weathering products such as Bragdon Enterprises chalk powders, and the Rustall weathering system. I start out by using a coat of Dullcoat to take the shine off the car and give it some "tooth" for the other elements to come. Here's some pics of cars I've done:

http://www.eddielandreth.boche.net/rr_tp1.html

[Anonymous]

those are some nice looking cars eddie, where can i find some pictures of prototype cars to use as a reference?

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Joe. Here's one of my favorite sites for photos:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/

[AggroJones]

I use endless combinations of dry-brushing, heavy washes, streaking, Bragdon Enterprise powders, dullcote spraying, etc.

One usefull tidbit-- rubbing alcohol is your best friend. It thins water based washes down to evenly coat the surface and enter the crevices. I find the 70% kind works better for air brushing with Polly S paints than the Polly S blue thinner.

This is was done with a wash of black shoe polish and alcohol. Followed by 2 layers of dullcote. And some earth tone chalks worked into the roughend surface. And dullcoted again.


Brown water color mixed into alcohol shot through a spray bottle onto a dullcoted surface makes for a neat effect. Not bad, I don't think. Them trucks need to be lighter though.


I use 90% to thin Polly S paint for the aging of my steam locomotives. Again, it smooths it out and turns the look ashier than straight paint. This is a whole lot of dry brushing. Most of what you see is thin layers of paint, Bragdon Enterprise weathering powders, and dullcote.

[Anonymous]

The Bragdon Enterprises powders mentioned really work well, especially on the very slippery delrin plastic used on most trucks. It sticks to this plastic better than paint! I also use coal and graphite to simulate the soot given off by the coal-burning steamers.
I use an airbrush for streaks on the ends of the cars that is thrown up by the wheels of the car coupled to it. An eyedropper with a very diluted color can be used to apply spilled liquid around manways of tank cars and fuel fillers on locomotives.

[mikebonellisr]

You might want to try Mister Art at http://www.misterart.com for Shiva casine colors

[tatans]

The key to weathering is "moderation'' you will find the best looking weathered equipment is done very with a light touch--- it' not like when you painted your car with a broom.

[Ibflattop]

I have just been weathering my rollingstock with pastels. I dont have a problem with them rubbing off much eather so I havent dull coated them. The way I doo it, I have a stiff brisel bru***hat I have cut the brisles down to just about the metal tip. I then run the brush over the stick or sometimes I dip into the chalk powder. I apply it to the car with a scrubbing motion from the top to the bottom. This has been my method for a time now. My buddy has also intorduced me to the Alcohol and Black India ink method too. I just get a .97 cent bottle of alcohol from your drugstore and put a couple of drops into it. Shake well and apply it with your brush starting from the top of the model so the mixture runs down the sides of the model. I do this in layers depending on how much weathering I want. I also use the Alcohol with Ink meathod along with the pastels to tone the color down. It also sets the pastels into the paint so you dont have to dullcoat the model eather. Thanks for your time Kevin

[AggroJones]

One of these days I'm going to "pull a Mellow-Mike". That is to say, focus on the weathering of one car for a long time. With the results being strikingly true to a selected photo. Mike comes around here occasionally and is responsible for some of the most amazing freight car weathering I've ever seen.

[Pruitt]

Mostly I use Floquil paints and eath-tone chalks:

I'll add some rust along rivets and seams by dipping my brush in solvent, then in the rust color, then dragging the very tip along the seam.

Then I'll add a very diluted grimy black wash over the car to dull everything a little bit, and make the car look like it's been outdoors in all kinds of wather. Some areas I'll hit with additional, heavier washesto simulate more dirt accumulation.

I've never had the Floquil craze a plastic car, but the washes dry pretty fast, with the solvent acting as a flowing agent to deposit the pigments.

Next I add earth tone pastel chalk colors to simulate road grime on the lower parts of the car, and mud splatters up the ends where the wheels throw dirty water. I way overdo the chalks, since the fixative (Dullcoat) makes most of it disappear.

Finally I fix the body weathering with dullcoat.

I paint the truck sideframes and wheels (except the treads) with rust and grimy black. Sometimes I dip the brush in rust, then into a bottle of "dirty" solvent. That tones down the rust color and makes it look like dirt has somewhat covered the layers of rust.

I also rust the Kadees, but I'm real careful to keep the paint out of the hinge and spring.

After everything else is done, I go back and put a small band of silver on the brake piston shaft. Since it moves in and out past a sealing gland and a dust seal, it stays shiny no matter what the rest of the car looks like.

I don't know if it would do for anyone else, but to me it looks good.

I don't have any really good pictures of weathered cars posted, but you can see some of the weathering on the tank and ore cars in this train (the locos aren't weathered yet):