PLEASE honest opinions - I want to get better at this
Freelancing MCRR/NYC Northern Division - Angelo
Its a good start. The colors are too defined, not blended enough...and overall too heavy, IMO. Take a mixture of 50% water and 50% 90% alcohol and wash off a lot of the paint using a chisel brush and nothing but vertical strokes. Be sure to keep the brush on the damp side, not drenched where the water/alcohol runs a lot. Wipe any excess vertically with a paper towel.
Basically, at this point you want to remove paint and blend it together. This will also tend to reveal the lettering underneath.
Becareful not to scrub with the brush too vigorously as the solution could remove some of the factory lettering if you're not careful. But your paint that you used for weathering should come off long before the factory paint is bothered.
- Douglas
Thx Doug,
I used Acrylic paint cut with water, two drops water, one drop paint, I sprayed dull coat waited an hour and started with the acrylics. First time around I washed the coat off because it was too dark. Went with a mix of 3 drop water to 1 drop paint. If anyone uses acrylics what mix do you use?
At this point, the alcohol solution applied with vertical strokes with a chisel brush will produce downward streaks. That should help quite a bit, IMO.
Nickel Plate Road:
I would thin the paint a lot more i.e. 10 - 1 water to paint. You can always add a second coat.
Also, I would suggest trying a slightly damp brush, not a wet one.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Recopied from other post and edited:
Well, not sure if it is the camera or not but I would have used a semi gloss or gloss black (maybe an oil based paint? might have to give that one a try) for oil. You might also try the Testors Createfx paint pens or paints (I think they have a tar or oil or something like that).
Might be a little overdone on the spillage, but thats more of a to taste type of thing.
Edit: The streaking the paint down as Doughless said should help you out here.
You might try using a prototype photo when weathering locomotives and rolling stock.
RR-picturearchives and RR-fallenflags have 100k plus photos between them.
There is also a morning sun book or 2 on tank cars; however it is ~$60, so not really a good buy unless you are modeling a lot of tank car served facilities.
From an operator stand point, the reporting marks are kind of hard to see. You may want to dial the overall weathering back a smidge if you are planning on using a car routing system (might also be the photo).
Noticed you removed the tank from the rest of the car. Dont forget to weather the rest of it, wheels included (be careful not to get paint on the axle points, paint there causes the car to roll poorly or not at all).
Edit:
Weathering light colored cars is somewhat harder than darker colored cars. You really have do light passes and build up the effect. Its easy add too much weathering to a light colored car if you are used to doing darker ones.
Also, you may want to consider the era/year(s) you are modeling. A new car built in December 1949 would probably not have much weathering in summer of 1950.
Also consider the commodity carried in the car. An acid tank car would not have oil leaking out of it (yours is probably some sort of fuel car (gas, diesel, fuel oil) so you did okay there).
Some cars were captive service cars (moves from one loading point to one or a few customers and back to the same loading point, carrying the same commodity each time).
Just a suggestion - you have two threads going which could be combined into one so that all the answers on weathering show up in one thread.
If you want to do that, send Steve Otte a personal message (PM) and ask him to do it. You can contact him by going to the General Discussion forum and clicking on his picture in the first thread. That will open up his personal profile and you will see 'Start Conversation' in the upper right corner.
Its your choice.
Too brite , I wonder if some grey chalks may tone it down. Good start though.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
Weathering anything is an effort of trial and error. The previous suggestions were all pretty good, and I would emphasize to go much lighter the next time around. You can always make it darker, but lighter is almost impossible.
Spending 40 years in and around refineries, I've seen some pretty "weathered" tank cars. Over flows of vegetable oils or heavy (i.e. crudes and sludge) petroleum oils are common. These will provide "adhesive" for airborne dirt over time and blacken the car significantly. That used to be pretty common, but not near as much today (EPA regs, OSHA, etc.).
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Too heavy.
Why does oil flow down the dome, out over the platform, back under the platform and then continue down the side of the car at an angle (and over the hand rail)? The platform is not part of the tank, there is a gap between the platform and the tank, the oil would drip behind it, but not over it. Gravity works straight down. What caused the oil drips to "wander"? Why are there oil smudges 15 feet away from the dome near the end of the car?
It that an orange tank car or did you "weather" it with a really heavy coat of "rust" to make a silver or yellow tank car turn orange? There are really two types of "splash" marks. A drip type starts out wide and narrows to streaks as it goes down. The spray type starts out from a point and spreads/thins out. Gravity normally does drips and pressure or motion does sprays.
I am assuming that this is a test shell and won't actually be used on a car on your layout. For actual cars, make sure you have the whole tank together, because matching the weathering between the top and bottom halves separately is really hard.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Hi NYC
This will be my first true rail road. I am not sure of the era. I bought a lot of H.O cars on ebay to experment on. this on happened to a an orange Shell tank car. I was trying to get the running oil effect. So far everyone has been giving me great pointers VERY MUCH APPRECIATED THANKYOU
Angelo :-)
HI Dave
Oops, I ment to start a new thread with the weathering and posted it to the photo thread when I had a few windows open at the time.
Angelo
Weathering is tricky for some of the reasons others mentioned. I also can't tell whether the car is originally red or weathered that way. For me, using pure acrylic paint doesn't make realistic weathering. I would suggest using artist chalk powders and artist paint for rust. My wife always reminds me that less is more with weathering, which I find challenging.
Acrylic paints are great for scenery and painting buildings and people; they are far too bold for weathering. It seems that most weathering is subtle for many cars built >5 years of your era. Cars that are 30+ years on my layout purposely look more weathered than newer ones.
Looking at real pictures is a great way of seeing how to weather cars. You also can look at some weathering books to get ideas.
Dehusman
It was an orange Shell tank car. I bought a few "throw away" cars on ebay so I could try my hand at it. I was trying to get the spilled oil effect, whin I lived in NYC my uncle had a fuel oil route and sometimes some would "leak" out of the swing arm on to the tank body. I just assumed crude oil would be heavier. You made some god points and thanks. in the next few day I will repost another car.
thanks again
You could try artist's oil paints. They take a long time to dry so you have plenty of time to blend and smooth out the brush strokes. You've also got plenty of time to undo things if you think you overdid it. Just dip a clean brush in thinner and remove what you've done.
On the down side, they take a long time to dry so it might take a couple of weeks to complete a car.
ETA:A lot of the guys over at the Weathering Shop use artist oils. Here's a nicely done tanker by Kevin Packard...
http://theweatheringshop.com/kevintank.html
Here's another by Don Smith...
http://theweatheringshop.com/indacfxtank.html
Steve S
Hi NPR - I think it looks good. Before I comment, remember that I have weathered exactly ZERO cars. I think the overall orange part is fine, especially for such an early attempt. I would agree with the earlier commenter that the wandering oil drips look odd since gravity would pull those straight down. The only other thing I would mention is that I like the blurred dark/black oil areas around the top. These look like repeated spills over time that generally stain the area a darker color. The individual streaks that look like one specific spill are harder to pull off successfully. Maybe try to make them thinner and taper them as they go down. I think it's safer to just stick with those blended stains.
Nickel Plate Road Dehusman It was an orange Shell tank car. I bought a few "throw away" cars on ebay so I could try my hand at it. I was trying to get the spilled oil effect, whin I lived in NYC my uncle had a fuel oil route and sometimes some would "leak" out of the swing arm on to the tank body. I just assumed crude oil would be heavier. You made some god points and thanks. in the next few day I will repost another car. thanks again Angelo
You def want to pick up Pelle Soeeborg's book called "Done in a Day." He talks about how to replicate oil spills on tank cars and a ton of other stuff. Pelle is a guru on scenery. He's so good that I have trouble distinguishing between his work and real life.
I will go get Pelle's book! Thank you everyone for all the great tips - I really appreciate it. Look for Shell Oil part two within the next few days, damn work gets in the way of my fun
My honest opinion (apart from the observation that weathering is a skill like any other which means that there is a learning process that of necessity means the early attempts are unlikely to get it right the first time): I think the reddish coloring (rust I assume?) is overdone. Tank cars DO indeed rust and as a rule, starting with the top surface working its way down, but rarely to the extent that the reporting marks are as obscured as we see here. Moreover true rust is in the metal so to speak, not a layer on top of the metal. That is a challenging look to capture.
The idea, as mentioned above, is to weather in successive layers rather than try to achieve the final result at the first go. Adding more is easier than taking away in other words. Each layer should be slight.
The latest NMRA Magazine has a very good tutorial on basic weathering: start with the coat of DullKote. Then, brush on a blend of a small amount of india ink and 70% isopropyl alcohol, drawing the soft brush DOWN the model to simulate the flow of rain and condensation.
The DullKote deadens the shine in the paint. The alcohol in the mix then lightens and fades the paint color, simulating the paint chalking with age. The india ink highlights seams, rivets and other details. The third stage in the article is adding grime. Interestingly that author does NOT seal the final result with DullKote. I know many guys who do not seal their structure weathering with DullKote on the basis that they do not expect to be touching their structures and thus are not concerned with the powders or chalks rubbing off. With today's finely detailed freight car models, it is also less likely to be touching rolling stock on the body.
The more I do weathering the more I like chalks, and adhesive powders, applied to a surface which has been primed with DullKote to give it "tooth." I seem to have better luck than some with sealing the result in DullKote but yes it does tend to wash away much of the effect. I have learned how much to overdo the weathering so the final DullKoted result is close to what I am after, but there can also be repeated applications of both DullKote and weathering powders. A recent issue of MR had an excellent tutorial on weathering with powders/chalks.
I do like your drips of spilled oil (I assume), particularly the two that drip down the sides of the small platform, because I suspect an actual spill would follow those paths rather than over the middle of the platform. For an oily look on black tank cars I sometimes use magic marker for that purpose (not Sharplie but true Magic Marker). I do not use Magic Marker on tank cars other than black ones.
You do not often see spill marks on oil tank cars these days -- the loading facilities are presumably now very sophisticated and environment conscious. But I do remember seeing such spill marks on old tank cars that were used in railroad fuel service.
Some of the most interesting spill marks on tanks cars are on cars that carry sulfer (yellow splatter) and cars that carry edible or inedible tallows (what a greasy mess!).
When I go to swap meets I often look for the cheapest freight cars I can find - those are my learning guinea pigs when I try new techniques and it doesn't matter what the trucks or couplers or accuracy of the model look like. The only "sad" thing is when I do a wonderful job on a crappy train set quality car and then agonize whether I can salvage it for actual layout use!
Dave Nelson
Hi Mr. Nelson, I started with an orange shell car (bought on ebay with a group for $15) and I am using those to learn on. I sprayed the unit with dull coat and used a layer of caymen white, red oxcide, burnt sennia, flat black acrylic paints watered down. Another modeler suggested I use a 10 to 1 mix next time around. I know I should have started with something not so bright, but what the heck, into the breach. I used gull grey and burnt sennia on the underbody and trucks. I went out today and bought "done in a day" by Pelle and I am geeked to try his methods. So far I am impressed by all the helpful input. Thank you Dave, regards Angelo
What was the original color of the tank car? It appears as if a blood red color was painted over it but it's hard to tell. Ideally look for photo's of tank cars and try to copy them as best you can.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I usually use a dry brush. Load up a brush, wipe off just about all of the paint, and then paint the car with the brush. There are a couple of web sites that go into a more detailed explanation of dry brushing.
Bear "It's all about having fun."