MOW and other Vehicle Weathering

[TLOC]

Still working on 8-20’ containers, 2 of the 53’ and 2 of the 40’. 12 of 24 total containers needed and may still need more work. The Tamiya X-21 flat base, I must have put lots more then the 5% I like to add. The talc is sure showing and on these 12 would not brush out. The additional fade coat also didn’t help as much as it did on the other 12.

Next up for these 12 is rusting at each locking point and streaking it faintly down the container sides. Some splatter on the front panel and rear doors and hopefully I like it.

These 10 are barely faded and have a matte clear finish, Army Painters “air” clear thinned 50/50 with warm tap water. The client had approved them and his daughter was here this morning and picked them up

There are 2 more 53’ containers that I replaced with 2 of my own that were the same contain name. These 2 will be stripped and the process started over

 

[C&OMtnMan]

The talc is sure showing and on these 12 would not brush out. The additional fade coat also didn’t help as much as it did on the other 12.

Titanium dioxide, per the bottle. The white beach sand in Australia is the same stuff.

 

[TLOC]

Titanium dioxide, per the bottle. The white beach sand in Australia is the same stuff.

I havechad good success with it in the past. Not so good the last couple of days!

 

[C&OMtnMan]

I havechad good success with it in the past. Not so good the last couple of days!

Anything going on with your ventilation? Unexpected humidity?

 

[TLOC]

Anything going on with your ventilation? Unexpected humidity?

No, there are no environmental changes. The shop is kept at 68f degrees with humidity around 32%.

I also had this happen about a year or so ago. 2 Walthers Mainline TILX tank cars. Very nice cars and during an airbrush shoot of the Tamiya X-21 flat base it sort of blew up. It spidered all over the car and the more I worked on it the worst it got.

I always have cleaned the cars in Isopropyl Alcohol and let them dry at least a couple hours and usually overnight. Since that mess I have been extra careful cleaning throughly client commission cars. I belong to a private FB group of guys/gals who do weathering work for sale. The consensus decided the Walthers 2 cars had some extrusion lubricant remaining on the car body even after my cleaning. Basically it’s a guess as to why this happened. At least on the containers it wasn’t to bad. When I get to the train room tomorrow evening I’ll take a picture of the 2 tank cars as I still have them.

 

[TLOC]

Here is one of the tank cars before the dents were added. That mess was a nice even fade coat that when I added the clear coat, it exploded to this

I did text Tamiya and asked what might have happened. The non-answer was sometimes it’s an “unusual” combo of things but mainly they see this when the surface is contaminated

 

[TLOC]

LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS, need strapping or tie downs

I haven’t really played around with this car since the last posting on 12/6. But it’s been in the way on the bench. I was posting some pictures on my FB page and it was in the back ground of some other cars the person was interested in. (Pulp cars) He made an offer on the Hospital car and I countered but we didn’t come to an agreement. He did say if I added tie downs at my price level he’d pay it. So, I am looking for suggestions on how to make realistic tie downs for this “Hospital” car and load. It’s my understanding that 2-3” wide ratchet straps are not useable on a load like this. That using Chartall tape would be easy. Any suggestions

 

[CambriaArea51]

I had some chain with turnbuckles from an Intermountain car that I used to chain this car down.

 

[Rico]

LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS, need strapping or tie downs

I’ve used unwaxed dental floss painted yellow before for straps, turned out pretty good!
The same can be used for metal banding too, just in black.
I wonder if chart tape would work also?

 

[CambriaArea51]

I wonder if chart tape would work also?

Yes it works, here are some examples. Small chart tape for banding on pipe and wider yellow for the straps. The loads are removable so that's why the yellow tape tucks under.

 

[TLOC]

I had some chain with turnbuckles from an Intermountain car that I used to chain this car down.View attachment 178249

I have chain but not any turnbuckles. That looks super and is what in my mind I want to do

thank you

 

[TLOC]

Yes it works, here are some examples. Small chart tape for banding on pipe and wider yellow for the straps. The loads are removable so that's why the yellow tape tucks under.View attachment 178250View attachment 178251View attachment 178252

Your loads look great. I use the tape for pipe loads and steel plate. My understanding to hold down a damaged rail car strapping is not allowed.

thank you.

 

[TLOC]

I’ve used unwaxed dental floss painted yellow before for straps, turned out pretty good!
The same can be used for metal banding too, just in black.
I wonder if chart tape would work also?

Thanks for the ideas. For metal banding the chart tape does work great.
I have many dental floss dispensers and will get. 2 more tomorrow at the dentist. I never really thought of trying it, but I will experiment with it now

 

[CambriaArea51]

Your loads look great. I use the tape for pipe loads and steel plate. My understanding to hold down a damaged rail car strapping is not allowed.

thank you.

It has to be chain, and it's hard to find something that works. The loose chain that you can buy is a pain to glue it straight to put on a car. I did it with this pipe load bu never again.

 

[TLOC]

More containers…

Showing 13 of the 40 being worked on today

inspected, cleaned and the 1st cleat coat applied. I used Tamiya’s XF86 thinned 50/50 with X20 thinner.

The Hyundai are decent containers that lack the door details that the blue Atlas containers have. For the same $$$ IMO as the Walthers Scenemaster containers the Atlas cars are a good value

Weathering of the 40 with be light with some rust streaking. It will be a mix of Vallejo air hand brushed on and Pan Pastels.

In 2023 per the official count by the wife I weathered 716 containers for 1 client and 80 more for a few others. For myself, 31.

 

[TLOC]

I’m not sure what you call lots of MoW vehicles but I have a client calling them a flock. There are 30 pick up trucks, some with man lifts or bucket lifts and some are hiwheelers so they can run on the tracks. They showed up before Christmas and he would like them as an Easter gift to his son.

Another client has 14 MOW trucks here to be shipped by mid-February

I never asked if I had permission to show photos of those 30 in progress and will text him today. 80%+ of my weathering clients do say no to posting pictures.

But I do have my own linesmen truck that is on the module above one of my work spaces

This will be worked on after a Proto picture review this afternoon and my return from a fasting lab

 

[TLOC]

Here are 14 MOW vehicles approved for pictures by a client. The ones with blue tape are inspected and the balance of these will be inspected now that I am back home.

The guy with 30 has not responded yet but I can get the windows on these 14 masked off and start masking the next 30 as I prefer to do things in batches.

The Scenemasterdump truck was just to be clear coated but I am being sent some BNSF decals to apply and now to weather. The UPS truck is just for a matte clear coat and the 2 tanker trailers are to be decaled and weathered.

All in all a fun project that in the past has go well and decently quick.

Not shown are 4 more CN trucks for me that I’m not 100% sure I want to work on them.

 

[TLOC]

The linesman truck has a new owner and he wants the truck much dirtier then my own plan. I had said on my FB page I would be willing to weather and sell the truck for my normal weathering prices, shipping and a replacement. It took me 2 years to find and buy this one. I wasn’t going through that again. Well it arrived Saturday and now I am working on it. It’s a work in process with much of what I am doing is apply and wipe off

When completed I will post with the info

 

[TLOC]

We lost Morris, for just a while. After multiple surgeries he still barely fits behind the wheel but from the outside looking in, he’s looking comfortable. He’s being fitted for his PPE and should be ready for publicity photos tomorrow

Every truck working off road or that closes down a lane of traffic needs safety cones. The client has quite a few pick ups here to be weathered and send me 10 packages (6 pcs) of traffic barrels. Turns out he ordered the wrong thing as he thought they were the safety cones. I have tons of safety cones so started the weathering process on 3 cones and 60 barrels. The barrels he says will be used in a highway scene. The cones will be added to the bed of the the truck

 

[TLOC]

Final post on the linesmen truck. I am waiting for client approval before adding the final clear coat. The boom is dirtier than what I prefer but he claims it’s similar to the truck he drives for the WSOR RR so he knows best.

Morris is wearing his PPE gear and has rubbed his elbow and shoulder against something on the boom. His hard hat per rule is green to indicate he is on probation