I am in the dirt up to my neck. I have always liked beat up, rust bucket weathering. Can you do dirt wrong?? ... oh yeah!! I have made some pretty big mistakes weathering trains over the years. Most of these went to Ebay or were redone. I don’t regret a single moment of any of the cars that didn’t turn out as I learned lots about what does and doesn’t work when weathering.
At this point I am pretty confident in my weathering abilities. I always approach weathering as a pretty serious undertaking. The possibility that you will take a nice model and screw it up is always there. I try not to weather when I am tired or not in the right frame of mind. One of the key elements is assessing how the weathering looks and the amount needed. Judgment can be fleeting. Something that looks good in one instant may not look so good later….
Probably the biggest things I have picked up in terms of weathering are the oft repeated mantras: start out with less weathering and add more later - practice, practice, practice
I have not been so cavalier about locomotive weathering. After an early fairly dismal attempt, I have only recently started to weather some locos. This is especially tricky because I am using non-reverseable techniques on locos – airbrushing acrylics. If you don’t like it, you can tone it down maybe once but after that paint can get too thick and its strip and repaint to fix.
I thought it might be fun to take a look at some steam locomotive weathering:
Ok This is the first dismal attempt. I am undoubted trashing what little mojo I have in the modeling community by posting this shot. Mistakes are the colors are too extreme and no toning and blending. Dirt done wrong...
Here is the classic type of steam loco weathering (I bought the loco painted this way). The weathering ratioale for the the gray/blue hue is that it shows up well under layout lights. There are some pretty strong opinions about whether locos should be black like the real thing or whether they should be lighter colors to compensate for the lack of sunlight on the layout.
Here is an example of lighter weathering using the less is more principle - notice that it is pretty dark. Acrylic airbrush: rust followed by white followed by black.
Here is a much more heavily weathered loco that is closer to the gray style of weathering but it still retains some dark. Acrylic airbrush: rust followed by white followed by black. Brush painted black and rust on running gear.
Here is a controversial example. This loco was weathered by a friend of mine whom I consider to be a master at weathering. I really like this loco. It has caused some degree of disagreement among my local train buddies. The loco is a good example of how some look at heavy weathering as artful weathering and others regard it is as way too extreme. I give you two views.
In this shot you can see the extent of the weathering. Some might stay over done.
In this shot the loco appears somewhat differently (same weathering). I have gotten some great shots of this loco….
Too much from me,
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
I have seen over weathered layouts where it looks like someone just sprayed brown paint on the whole layout. Yuck.
I think it is better if you start with just a little bit at first before going all out. I use water colors so if I don’t like the mess I made I can wash it off. I don’t weather items when I first get them. All rolling stock get to look new or freshly painted for a while until I get around to weathering them.
The one single thing to weather to make your pictures look better is your freight car trucks. All black trucks will disappear in pictures. They need to have some color.
Besides weathering your trains you should also weather your structures and vehicles, but not too much, remember people like to have shiny clean cars. The whole world isn’t brown and dirty. It is also full of bright vivid colorful objects.
My own feeling is that quite a bit of weathering is overdone. I think back to the early 1980s when I'd still see 40 foot boxcars with 6 foot doors - obviously cars that had not been painted in a long time (seeing "Route of the 400s" on a C&NW car side is one giveaway!) and it was often surprising how well the original (lead!) paint and lettering held up.
Some steam locomotive models look like a flock of pigeons roosted above it for a year.
My big mistake in my earliest weathering efforts (emphasis on "efforts") was that I took it too easy on myself. That is, if I was weathering a diesel locomotive I'd leave the side handrails on because, well, because it took so much work to put them on I suppose. Similarly when weathering a freight car roof I'd leave the running board on and more or less weather around it. This gave some of that weathering a decidedly odd and distorted look.
I learned to take the steps necessary to at least give myself an honest chance at getting it right. That's not to say I do get it right - just that I have an honest chance at it.
With today's ever more delicately detailed kit and RTR freight cars, various weathering methods of using pastels or powders become problematic because even a light brushing can dislodge minute details held in place with the merest whisp of cement. Thus when I start in on one of those delicately detailed kits, such as Red Caboose, IMWX (no longer produced), Intermountain, and the like, I think about certain weathering ideas even before commencing construction.
Dave Nelson
It's been quite awhile since I've done any painting, but I did do weathering "back in the day". The first stuff was pretty awful. One piece was INCREDIBLY awful. Until I actually saw something in real life that looked similar. Uh, wow!
I did get more subtle. The above was all done with paint brushes, but I finally got an air brush. And I used that for the weathering. It sorta looked OK, but not great.
Now I see some fantastic weathering (not so much, back then). So I figure I'll have to dive back in.
I've got a fair amount of Athearn blue box freight cars around that are surplus. I expect to practice on those first. Before I do the good stuff. I do have an instructional DVD that I think will help a lot. That, and the lack of fear 'cause I can toss my mistakes.
Ed
I, too, thought long and hard about weathering some models. This pair of GP9s was "in the shop" for decoder work, so I had the shells off, and figured that was a good time. They form a before-and-after set, even though they're not physically the same engine.
I think I got that one right.
Here's another before-and-after. I weathered the pigs.
Again, a Milwaukee diesel:
These were cereal-box cars I've had for 50 years or so. I wouldn't put the originals on my layout, particularly with my childish paintjobs, but I found that severe rusting and weathering made them attractive additions to my scrap yard.
Finally, this tank engine got a complete grimy black paint job. It was undecorated to begin with.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I am all in favor of weathering locos and rolling stock that "populate" a layout and are not intended to spend their service life in a display case, hoping they´d eventually appreciate in value.
That said, weathering can easily be overdone and is not easily reversed, should you not like the result. For that reason, it is quite important to determine the degree of weathering before putting the whole foot into weathering. Locos and cars don´t look pristine for a long time. A day out in the weather can be enough to steal the nice look they had when leaving the shop. A used, but not abused look and the heavily battered and beaten up look are miles apart.
For my prototype, it´s an easy choice. Swiss trains always look spick and span, so weathering must be really subtle if not hardly noticeable. My "oldest" loco, which had about 40 years of service life in the period I am modeling, has a slightly patched up paint job and a bit of grime around the louvers - that´s all!
Let's face it railroading is a filthy dirty grimey business. Actually looking at the crud filled photo's from the last century is (for me) part of the attraction of modeling that era. Like everything else in todays world, even railroading seems too sterile (for the betterment of our health I'm sure)
I have dipped my toes into the weathering part of the hobby on some structures, vehicles and rolling stock. Fortunately for me and the eyes of others I have been able to reverse some, shall we say, overly enthusiastic early attemps at weathering. The trepedation of attacking one of my steamers is starting to wane to the point where I think I am ready to take the plunge. Thanks to guys like Doctor Wayne and the many others that guide us along our way, weathering is something that is becoming an enjoyable part of the hobby for me.
So can you get dirty wrong? Who'd a thought. Tells us of how far you have waded into the dirt pile.
Have you had the guts to attack your prize Locomotive yet?
Are you just dipping your toes?
Are you one of those guys that keeps everything looking like the day it came out of the box? (not that there's anything wrong with that)
Tell us about your filthy journey and how has it worked out for you so far?
Don't forget to post photo's of your biggest successes and disasters (if you still have'em)
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."