doctorwayne I don't know if it applies to all Accurail trucks, but their extemely well-done Andrews trucks come with a semi-matte finish, even though they're still rendered in engineering plastic. It accepts (and seems to hold) paint better than most Delrin trucks, and easily accepts weathering with airbrushed paint or brush-applied artists' pastels...
I don't know if it applies to all Accurail trucks, but their extemely well-done Andrews trucks come with a semi-matte finish, even though they're still rendered in engineering plastic. It accepts (and seems to hold) paint better than most Delrin trucks, and easily accepts weathering with airbrushed paint or brush-applied artists' pastels...
Yes Wayne, I was thiking of Accurail trucks. Of course, the wheelsets that fit into them are not very good, so most probably simply toss the whole thing.
Personally, I prefer plastic wheels on metal axles. But that is very outside the norm of what most want these days.
If someone could take the old Athearn BB trucks with their plasitc wheels and metal axles, which were very free rolling, and make them from the same material Accurail used, we'd have a winner for me. 33 and 36 inch wheelsets.
Its always best to use as little paint as possible when weathering, so starting off with a matte dark brown finish would seem appropriate.
- Douglas
PC101 I do believe Walthers had a rust/brown color truck some years back. Let me go find some.
I do believe Walthers had a rust/brown color truck some years back. Let me go find some.
Yep, my Walthers kit built 2 bay Airslides came with brown trucks which happened to be sprung as well. Personally whether brown or black, either one doesn't look right out of the box; you still have to paint them for them to look right. I swapped them out for one-piece trucks as I preferred them over the funky sprung type and didn't care for the light mud brown color which was awful.
Personally I don't expect manufacturers to sell models with weathered trucks as a rule, and I'm guessing Howard already knows that and is just making conversation.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Wow, Wayne, beautiful work, as usual. I could swear that caboose is O scale, it's so loaded with detail!
Deano
BigDaddy PC101 I do believe Walthers had a rust/brown color truck some years back. Let me go find one. Yes they did, Do you think it looks prototypical or like an orangey brown piece of plastic? I have a boxcar of the same vintage and I vote plastic. Like any other weathering project, there isn't just one color. You can shoot it with a brown rattle can and that looks better from afar than a generic black, but if you want to take close ups like Doc Wayne, you need some rust, some grimey black and some dust/dirt too.
PC101 I do believe Walthers had a rust/brown color truck some years back. Let me go find one. Yes they did,
Do you think it looks prototypical or like an orangey brown piece of plastic? I have a boxcar of the same vintage and I vote plastic.
Like any other weathering project, there isn't just one color. You can shoot it with a brown rattle can and that looks better from afar than a generic black, but if you want to take close ups like Doc Wayne, you need some rust, some grimey black and some dust/dirt too.
The kits are not listed in the 1984 catalog but are listed in the Walthers 1987 catalog with a date on the top of the page of 9/86. I don't think I have the '85 or '86. Well I just opened a bag that has been closed up since 1987 and made a shocking discovery, the side coil springs have no life, dead, no tension they stay compressed or stay stretched. The brown rib backed wheels have small lettering on the face. The plastic is some what slippery, flexible, shiny, somewhere between light and dark brown, stronger on the light side. The cat. says ''Trucks and underframes are molded in realistic rust colored plastic - no painting needed''. Looks like good canadates for a scrap gond. or a truck replacement load on the wreck train or just sitting around the yard.
I remember those Lindberg trucks, and there are some (somewhere) on my layout. Great rolling qualities, in addition to the colour varieties.
Occasionally, I'll brush-paint trucks if they're overly shiny, but it's also possible to sandblast them using either baking soda or aluminum oxide. That takes care of the shine, and also provides some "tooth" if you wish to paint them.I don't know if TrueLine makes their trucks or buys them, but they seem to take (and retain) weathering fairly well. I brush-painted the leaf springs, then the entire trucks were weathered with an airbrush, while attached to the car...
Tahoe Model Works Dalman Two-Level trucks on a modified Train Miniature car...
...the springs were brush-paint a dirty rust colour, the rest is simple airbrush weathering - roll the car back-and-forth as you spray, to avoid blotchy wheel faces. I'm not a big fan of metal wheels, but seldom replace them with plastic. I do, however, brush paint all wheels, plastic or metal, including the fronts, backs and axles, and usually do it with the wheels in the trucks (and often, the trucks are on the cars, too.)
Wayne
I think the new owner of EB Products is just getting up and running. It's a small operation. It surprising how something like that can take a while if you have to develop a website, get new packaging designed and printed, order all of the parts and packaging you need, get information out to your dealers and distributors, assemble your products and then start shipping them. One small thing can really hold you up for a while.
Jim
PC101I do believe Walthers had a rust/brown color truck some years back. Let me go find one. Yes they did,
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I just bing'ed EB Products. A page came up on Nicolas Smith Trains with the trucks. They look pretty decent to me. I didn't post a link as per forum guidelines, but there's enough here to work with and find them. Dan
Update: Greenway has them with metal wheels, non magnetic axles, a couple bucks more per pair. Not bad given the price of metal wheels.
Yes they did, it was a bag of parts for sprung trucks, plastic rib back wheels (some black some brown) w/brass axel, and some cars had the black plastic non-sprung trucks also in the same car box.
Part #941-97029 truck bolsters (2)
#941-97030 side frames (4)
#945-610 springs (10)
#933-67 wheel sets (4)
White box with blue strips with Walthers trade mark on it, Kit #932-3509 at cost of $4.95 + tax. Instructions show a date of 1984.
I agree Howard. Shiny black is not a good color from which to start weathering. How about flat dark brown?
I assume the shininess comes from the engineered plastic, so the sheen may not be changeable, but brown material instead of black would be a nice starting point.
ctyclsscsI don't know if you're familiar with the EB Products line of trucks.
Never heard of them before. Do they have a website?
Looking at some freight car pictures through Google, seems like there are a lot of trucks that are some shade of gray/black.
The problem as noted above, some of us don't like pre-weathering. We'll do our own if any.
Paul
You're right Sheldon, but I think the new owner was talking about adding some darker rust colors, if I'm not mistaken.
ctyclsscs I don't know if you're familiar with the EB Products line of trucks. They were the old Lindberg sprung trucks. They have a new owner and he has upgraded them to metal wheels and is molding them in a variety of colors. I thought they looked very nice. He had them on display at the NMRA show last month in Kansas. I don't have a website for them, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find dealers who carry them. Jim
I don't know if you're familiar with the EB Products line of trucks. They were the old Lindberg sprung trucks. They have a new owner and he has upgraded them to metal wheels and is molding them in a variety of colors. I thought they looked very nice. He had them on display at the NMRA show last month in Kansas. I don't have a website for them, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find dealers who carry them.
The EB/Lindberg trucks come in colors because many prototype cars had their trucks painted the color of the car, specificly grey and oxide red, when the cars were new.
Howard, as others havs commented, pre weathered cars are generally a non starter in the market place. Those who want weathering will do it.
And, why would you weather the trucks and not the rest of the car?
Sheldon
I usually have to swap out the couplers for Kadees anyway, so removing the trucks for weathering is no big deal, particularly if I have to replace those plastic wheelsets.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
There are tons and tons of resources for weathering. I like doing that myself and don't want/need to pay for weathered cars. It doesn't take much time to give a car, any car, a weathered look. Heck, even removing the shiny sheen is a start; of course I do far more than that!
I don´t think that "pre-weathered" models sell well. The process of weathering needs to be standardized to be repetitive and therefore efficient, producing products which might all look alike. Individual weathering will, however, significantly contribute to the cost, even on the basis of Chinese (or other low labor cost countries) wages.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
As many know the world of RTR seems to becoming king of the hill. I'm not an RTR guy, but I do respect and often admire the quality of what is being done today. I do have one suggestion.....trucks! I have never seen gloss black or any kind of black on either freight or passenger cars on the prototype, but possibly when new. What would it take for RTR manufacturers to paint trucks realistically in a weathered rust type finish? Or just mold in a realsitic color for the frames and wheels if paint is too costly.
Years back Ertl offered a weathered finish on some of their RTR freight cars, and they did not look bad. Then Bobby Hunter was hired by Bachmann decades back to teach Chinese workers to weather some of their steam offerings. I do not know if these projects were successful. They certainly had merit.
HZ