RCH
Been Nothin' Since Frisco
My nemesis is weathering anything light, but especially white boxcars. I have had this boxcar for a million years and I've been avoiding finishing the weathering because it seems like you only get one shot and I never wanted to ruin it. Well, I finally started thinking, "it's a five dollar boxcar" so no worries anymore. Besides, it's not even the right type of car for the paint scheme it's wearing, so I got started on it last week in earnest.
I used prototype photos on Joe Shaw's site, RailARC and Fallen Flags to sort of piece together bits of rust here and there to make two nasty, rusty composite sides. But, before I did any rust work, I used my drafting eraser to remove the logo and "ROUTE ROCK" lettering. I washed light gray and dry brushed white oils to give the car a dingy look. I repainted the lettering using any of various shades of gray and black artists oils with my tiniest brush. I did the same with the logo, making attempts to duplicate the fading that reveals the spray patterns made by the original RI painter.
Once I liked the logos and lettering, I got out the ugly brush, an old chisel brush I've had for 10 years that I love to abuse. I stippled on a mix of 8 parts yellow, 2 parts red and one part burnt umber. This photo shows the car at this point:
Next, I got a smaller brush and mixed up the burnt umber 1:1 with the light orange I had just used and started doing the darkening. The next step was to use straight burnt umber to paint in the actual gouges and the dark spots on the door.
So, here's where it stands after tonight, with one side halfway there and the other side nearly complete. This is the other side of the model:
I still have the roof, ends, underside and the other side to finish. But, I was pretty surprised to get to this point in an hour and a half (starting from the completed lettering and logos, done last week and left to dry). I figure another few hours and it will be ready.
It's by no means perfect, and certainly not near the level of Mellow Mike's ROCK car, but it's a good learning experience. I'm just happy I'm getting a little better at painting rusty gouges!
I used prototype photos on Joe Shaw's site, RailARC and Fallen Flags to sort of piece together bits of rust here and there to make two nasty, rusty composite sides. But, before I did any rust work, I used my drafting eraser to remove the logo and "ROUTE ROCK" lettering. I washed light gray and dry brushed white oils to give the car a dingy look. I repainted the lettering using any of various shades of gray and black artists oils with my tiniest brush. I did the same with the logo, making attempts to duplicate the fading that reveals the spray patterns made by the original RI painter.
Once I liked the logos and lettering, I got out the ugly brush, an old chisel brush I've had for 10 years that I love to abuse. I stippled on a mix of 8 parts yellow, 2 parts red and one part burnt umber. This photo shows the car at this point:
Next, I got a smaller brush and mixed up the burnt umber 1:1 with the light orange I had just used and started doing the darkening. The next step was to use straight burnt umber to paint in the actual gouges and the dark spots on the door.
So, here's where it stands after tonight, with one side halfway there and the other side nearly complete. This is the other side of the model:
I still have the roof, ends, underside and the other side to finish. But, I was pretty surprised to get to this point in an hour and a half (starting from the completed lettering and logos, done last week and left to dry). I figure another few hours and it will be ready.
It's by no means perfect, and certainly not near the level of Mellow Mike's ROCK car, but it's a good learning experience. I'm just happy I'm getting a little better at painting rusty gouges!