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Realistic painting and weathering of plastic "corrugated metal siding and roof"

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  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Columbia, IL
  • 394 posts
Realistic painting and weathering of plastic "corrugated metal siding and roof"
Posted by wdcrvr on Saturday, November 21, 2015 4:26 PM

Hi.  I have just purchased the Walthers Diamond Coal kit.  It will be up front and the largest industry on my layout.  So, I am hoping to get plenty of advice from this forum on painting and weathering this plastic material to make it look as realistic as possible.  I am open to all suggestions and if anyone has a picture to go with their recommended method that would be great.  I am pretty new at this and have relied heavily on the terrific advice I get.

Thanks

wdcrvr

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Stevens Point, Wisconsin
  • 112 posts
Posted by arbe1948 on Saturday, November 21, 2015 5:29 PM

I have achieved good result on corrugated styrene by painting with a light grey primer and then using oil and Mountain Modelcraft washes with applications of Doc O,Brien and AIM weathering powders.  I start out pretty light with the applications, working up to the desired effect.

Bob Bochenek
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Central Vermont
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Posted by cowman on Saturday, November 21, 2015 6:13 PM

Did a shed roof, used an aluminium base coat and then dry brushed rust, more toward the bottom of each sheet.  I used a sharp pencil to make the lines denoting the edge of the sheets.  Not familiar with how the sheets are noted in the kit, but they usually come in lengths of 8' - 16' sheets of 2' increments, 36" wide, creating a 32" cover (due to overlap).  I then treated each sheet seperatly.  The sheets may rust differently, so I didn't worry if they didn't all  match.  Also, if water got between two sheets the surfaces exposed to the water rust dramaticly more.

Good luck,

Richard

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    July 2006
  • From: North Dakota
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Posted by BroadwayLion on Sunday, November 22, 2015 9:18 AM

LION use ribbon cables from old computers. Makes good corregated, takes paint well. Him installed some with silicone glue. Silicone not take paint well. On layout looks ok since it represents the pealing paint of the prototype.

ROAR

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Posted by rrebell on Sunday, November 22, 2015 10:55 AM

Grey primer and rust powders.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
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Posted by MisterBeasley on Sunday, November 22, 2015 11:08 AM

I've used a silver spray paint, then toned it down with Dull-Coat and finally brushed on rust and black weathering powders and sealed those with a second layer of Dull-Coat.

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Posted by Grampys Trains on Sunday, November 22, 2015 12:06 PM

I used aluminum paint and black and rust weathering powders on mine.

  • Member since
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  • From: Columbia, IL
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Posted by wdcrvr on Sunday, November 22, 2015 6:50 PM

Great Picture, Grampy.  It really helps to see the resuls of the method you used.  The entire scene looks really good to me.

wdcrvr

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
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Posted by dknelson on Wednesday, November 25, 2015 11:30 AM

One form of "weathering" that is rarely seen on plastic models, but very common on the prototype, is the denting and damage that the sheet metal undergoes over time.  I have photos of a corrugated metal sided building (likely wood underneath) where the area of the freight doors is incredibly banged up, with the bottom edges of the sheathing curling up and deep dents around each freight door.  In other words it does not have that clean flat regularity of the molded kit parts.

One way to approximate that is thin foil cut to the size of the metal sheets modeled on the kit, pressed into the corrugations of the kit using perhaps a dried up ball point pen (an old E.L. Moore trick) and cemented over the stiff plastic sheet.  Moore also made corrugated metal out of stiff bond paper pressed into corrugated metal or plastic using that dried ball point pen.  He might have then stiffened the paper using shellac.  A large sheet could be done at one time, and then cut into the appropriate sized pieces.  The whole building should  not look dented and dinged but at strategic points it can be very effective.

Dave Nelson  

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    April 2003
  • From: Clinton, MO, US
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Posted by Medina1128 on Saturday, November 28, 2015 7:05 AM

Grampys Trains

I used aluminum paint and black and rust weathering powders on mine.

 

Looks great Grampy!

  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Columbia, Pa.
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Posted by Grampys Trains on Saturday, November 28, 2015 10:36 AM

Thanks, guys.

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