Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread


Rico said:
Nice to see the BN cab still around! Looks like the graffiti got interrupted and never finished?
One thing I find with graffiti is if the color doesn’t complement the color of the car it can look terrible.
Although I don’t condone tagging it certainly is a part of the real world.
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I know a few graffiti vandals who are now in their 50’s. Too much glue sniffing in their youth from one of them. But he’ll agree, if the colors don’t fit the car the graffiti no matter how well technically that it’s done it will look like crap.

Most of the guys with spray bombs in a rail yard have minimal if any artistic skills but there are a few that truly are artists. I have seen a few viaducts in Chicago that were done by a team of the vandal/artists that look unreal. Then a 20’ wing wall done by someone who thought they were good.

I will post in the loco thread the Cascade Green unit
 
I’ve been under the weather most of the week (nothing serious), and haven’t been cranking anything out in the way of weathering.

Iffen y’all fellows have anything you were planning on writing up, posting about your newest efforts would give a cranky curmudgeon something to read & look at while he’s recovering.
 
C&OMtnMan said:
I’ve been under the weather most of the week (nothing serious), and haven’t been cranking anything out in the way of weathering.

Iffen y’all fellows have anything you were planning on writing up, posting about your newest efforts would give a cranky curmudgeon something to read & look at while he’s recovering.
Click to expand...
I’ll be in the locomotive thread later today but not freight cars today.

Glad it’s nothing serious that has got you under the weather
 
C&OMtnMan said:
I’ve been under the weather most of the week (nothing serious), and haven’t been cranking anything out in the way of weathering.

Iffen y’all fellows have anything you were planning on writing up, posting about your newest efforts would give a cranky curmudgeon something to read & look at while he’s recovering.
Click to expand...
Ask and ye shall receive. Hopefully you are feeling better!

Here are a couple gondolas from the 60's IIRC. Along with updating to Kadee couplers, they also got metal Intermountain wheelsets.

The loads are epoxy, and they were purchased on ebay, from an estate lot. The loads are HEAVILY coated in Tamiya brown panel liner, and some black panel liner as well. While still wet, I went through and selectively colored objects with Tamiya weathering powders, rust, silver and gunmetal. I did my usual, scrape the surface of the weathering powder, to make powder. Then I dabbed the brush directly onto the wet panel liner with the powder. To me, it looks great; Your thoughts are welcome as well!

The gondolas themselves, were done with black and brown panel liner, and more weathering powders from the same Tamiya kit. I did use a little Snow powder here and there, but it's mostly Soot and Rust.

Bogies are Vallejo german brown mixed with red primer, with rust weathering powder applied while the bogies were still slightly wet.

I do need to do more brown panel liner inside the gondolas; They are not to my liking, so they will wind up looking more like that Erie Lackwanna gondola I posted a few pages back. You can see the end of it in the second pic here.
1725749018671.png

1725749045571.png


As always, questions and comments welcome!

-RC
 
And to add, I CANNOT WAIT to weather this. Sorry for the caps, but if you couldn't tell, I'm excited.

I converted a Bachmann Santa Fe crane, to a Conrail crane. I also added a functional second hook, and designed and 3d printed the crane operation key, to look like an old CRR Of NJ key. The second hook isn't in these pics.

I am also leaning towards motorizing the crane, but that's for the Recycled Electronics Thread.

1725749598642.png

1725749655979.png


Have any of you weathered these types of cranes before? I loosely based it off of Conrail 45210. I like that syle CR, so that's how that wound up on there.

1725749785971.png

Photo credit goes to Donnie Lee, and the Conrail Historical Society.

I suppose this would fit over in the MOW weathering thread, yea?

-RC
 
So, before work today, I've applied some more brown panel liner to the gondola top rails and inside. Also included close ups of the bogies.
PXL_20240908_135417427.jpg

PXL_20240908_135423693.jpg

PXL_20240908_135432646.jpg
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PXL_20240908_135446092.jpg
PXL_20240908_135452980.jpg


Wow, didn't realize how heavy the powder caked on that Wabash gondola LOL.

I'm thinking one more coat of panel liner in the cars? 1980s-90s, so these would be quite old at that point yes?

-RC
 
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Good afternoon. I’m been preoccupied and haven’t checked in for awhile! I will go back and review the posts that showed up while I was gone. Thanks for keeping the thread visible…

I have a 1st time client that has forwarded me 1 diesel and 12 pieces of rolling stock. I have a method to my madness that I call my normal procedures. I have had requests here via forum email and many requests on FB as to what those normal procedures are! I will post pictures of my process for 5 cars as I move along. It’s nothing spectacular or crazy earth shattering but it works for me

The five
IMG_6911.jpeg


When I receive a model I first put the name of the modeler with address and number of pieces to return on the box it came in and that I will use to return the finished cars

No picture!

Each carton holding the model then gets a piece of painter’s tape with the modeler’s name on it and the price of the finished item
IMG_6918.jpeg


I then open and inspect each car looking for “obvious” missing or broken items. If something is found I will take a picture and text it to the modeler

I learned the hard way $$$ on this procedure, so it’s a must be done thing

I then remove the trucks and wheels for cleaning. I have various ways that I have tried for cleaning. I have air brushed Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) but that became too wasteful during Covid when the price for IPA exploded. I have separated the wheels from the trucks and dipped them in a bowl of Isopropyl Alcohol and then brushed them. Now I take the wheels off and hand clean them with a mop brush dipped in IPA. Same with the trucks
IMG_6915.jpeg
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Here is the mop!
IMG_6919.jpeg

That is what I am doing today. In groups of 5 I will inspect and clean 35 cars. The fading of the cars will start tomorrow and hopefully be done by Sunday night.

Between bouts of fading I will weather/rust the wheels with a brush. I will ream with a Micro-Mart Truck Tuner

the wheel holes on the trucks
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and then weather the trucks

have a great day
 

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RC Perspective said:
Ask and ye shall receive. Hopefully you are feeling better!

Here are a couple gondolas from the 60's IIRC. Along with updating to Kadee couplers, they also got metal Intermountain wheelsets.

The loads are epoxy, and they were purchased on ebay, from an estate lot. The loads are HEAVILY coated in Tamiya brown panel liner, and some black panel liner as well. While still wet, I went through and selectively colored objects with Tamiya weathering powders, rust, silver and gunmetal. I did my usual, scrape the surface of the weathering powder, to make powder. Then I dabbed the brush directly onto the wet panel liner with the powder. To me, it looks great; Your thoughts are welcome as well!

The gondolas themselves, were done with black and brown panel liner, and more weathering powders from the same Tamiya kit. I did use a little Snow powder here and there, but it's mostly Soot and Rust.

Bogies are Vallejo german brown mixed with red primer, with rust weathering powder applied while the bogies were still slightly wet.

I do need to do more brown panel liner inside the gondolas; They are not to my liking, so they will wind up looking more like that Erie Lackwanna gondola I posted a few pages back. You can see the end of it in the second pic here.
View attachment 198498
View attachment 198499

As always, questions and comments welcome!

-RC
Click to expand...
The loads and coloring look great.

The use of the panel liners on gondola sides is very nice. Everything looks believable

I have used the panel liners on diesel locomotives with mixed results. Sometimes it followed the lines I wanted them to and other times they just clumped up
 
RC Perspective said:
And to add, I CANNOT WAIT to weather this. Sorry for the caps, but if you couldn't tell, I'm excited.

I converted a Bachmann Santa Fe crane, to a Conrail crane. I also added a functional second hook, and designed and 3d printed the crane operation key, to look like an old CRR Of NJ key. The second hook isn't in these pics.

I am also leaning towards motorizing the crane, but that's for the Recycled Electronics Thread.

View attachment 198504
View attachment 198505

Have any of you weathered these types of cranes before? I loosely based it off of Conrail 45210. I like that syle CR, so that's how that wound up on there.

View attachment 198506
Photo credit goes to Donnie Lee, and the Conrail Historical Society.

I suppose this would fit over in the MOW weathering thread, yea?

-RC
Click to expand...
I would love to see how you weather the crane. Other than some Hi-wheeler trucks I have no other MOW equipment on the layout.

As to where to place the MOW equipment? I put a notice on 3/1/2024 that I would not be posting anything more to the MOW thread. I have no issues if you want to post MOW equipment here or do another MOW thread

Looking forward to seeing the crane
 
RC Perspective said:
So, before work today, I've applied some more brown panel liner to the gondola top rails and inside. Also included close ups of the bogies.
View attachment 198576
View attachment 198577
View attachment 198578View attachment 198579View attachment 198580View attachment 198581

Wow, didn't realize how heavy the powder caked on that Wabash gondola LOL.

I'm thinking one more coat of panel liner in the cars? 1980s-90s, so these would be quite old at that point yes?

-RC
Click to expand...
Anything is possible on the Railroad. If somebody told you those were too crusty someone else would find a prototype photo of that. I like them but I’m a rust bucket lover

I’m not sure how old the gons would be in 1990 but they usually would have been in interchange service for 40 years and after that kept in service for internal work, not for interchange.
 
RC Perspective said:
So, before work today, I've applied some more brown panel liner to the gondola top rails and inside. Also included close ups of the bogies.
View attachment 198576
View attachment 198577
View attachment 198578View attachment 198579View attachment 198580View attachment 198581

Wow, didn't realize how heavy the powder caked on that Wabash gondola LOL.

I'm thinking one more coat of panel liner in the cars? 1980s-90s, so these would be quite old at that point yes?

-RC
Click to expand...
Your coloring looks great but to be perfectly frank you really need some dents with an authentic scrap load.

My 2 cents

Dave LASM
 
Well, I finally got to my pin wash on the single-sheathed B&O box cars. I had ideal conditionas for doing this outdoors: 84degrees F and 47% RH.

I wanted outdoors in particular to breathe some fresh air. My minor illness was coronavirus. Caught it from my mom while she was hospitalized on another matter. (Or maybe we both caught it at the hospital.) My sister got it as well. Everyone is recovered.

By way of reminder and direct comparison, here are before photos of the two cars on location where I did the work outdoors, in their Tamiya gloss coat:

IMG_4272.jpeg

IMG_4273.jpeg


The wash was made from Master’s Touch (Hobby Lobby) Lamp Black, thinned about10:1 with mineral spirits, brushed on with a small, flat soft-bristle brush. It went on considerably dark, so I “washed down the wash” with some clear mineral spirits. I went back and forth with more of the wash, dilute & re-wet the excess with mineral spirits, draw off the excess with a Q-tip, rinse and repeat rather literally.

Mineral spirits is (are?) an incredibly forgiving medium to work with (learned through years of woodworking - you have a good long working time, can redissolve what the mineral spirits is the carrier of, so you can fix almost any mistake before it becomes permanent. On the negative side, you can’t really build coats efficiently because things redissolve, and the long working time entails a long drying time.

Here are the after photos, shortly after application:
IMG_4285.jpeg

IMG_4286.jpeg


Those photos only hint at anything being done. Then there is this one back indoors:

IMG_4287.jpeg


I don’t think any photo is going to show what happened until these thing get a clear flat on them.

And due to workload and family considerations, that could be 3-7 weeks away.
 
C&OMtnMan said:
Well, I finally got to my pin wash on the single-sheathed B&O box cars. I had ideal conditionas for doing this outdoors: 84degrees F and 47% RH.

I wanted outdoors in particular to breathe some fresh air. My minor illness was coronavirus. Caught it from my mom while she was hospitalized on another matter. (Or maybe we both caught it at the hospital.) My sister got it as well. Everyone is recovered.

By way of reminder and direct comparison, here are before photos of the two cars on location where I did the work outdoors, in their Tamiya gloss coat:

View attachment 198862
View attachment 198863

The wash was made from Master’s Touch (Hobby Lobby) Lamp Black, thinned about10:1 with mineral spirits, brushed on with a small, flat soft-bristle brush. It went on considerably dark, so I “washed down the wash” with some clear mineral spirits. I went back and forth with more of the wash, dilute & re-wet the excess with mineral spirits, draw off the excess with a Q-tip, rinse and repeat rather literally.

Mineral spirits is (are?) an incredibly forgiving medium to work with (learned through years of woodworking - you have a good long working time, can redissolve what the mineral spirits is the carrier of, so you can fix almost any mistake before it becomes permanent. On the negative side, you can’t really build coats efficiently because things redissolve, and the long working time entails a long drying time.

Here are the after photos, shortly after application:
View attachment 198873
View attachment 198874

Those photos only hint at anything being done. Then there is this one back indoors:

View attachment 198877

I don’t think any photo is going to show what happened until these thing get a clear flat on them.

And due to workload and family considerations, that could be 3-7 weeks away.
Click to expand...
I guess we will have to wait on the matte finish.

Glad the virus wasn’t worst for you. I’ve still got no strength or stamina since my bout about a month ago
 
TLOC said:
The loads and coloring look great.

The use of the panel liners on gondola sides is very nice. Everything looks believable

I have used the panel liners on diesel locomotives with mixed results. Sometimes it followed the lines I wanted them to and other times they just clumped up
Click to expand...
Thanks! I use a super diluted mixture for locomotives, as far as I can tell, it stops the clumping issue. 10:1 X20 (or X20A, I don't recall right offhand) to panel liner. Takes multiple coats to get it to stand out.
TLOC said:
I would love to see how you weather the crane. Other than some Hi-wheeler trucks I have no other MOW equipment on the layout.

As to where to place the MOW equipment? I put a notice on 3/1/2024 that I would not be posting anything more to the MOW thread. I have no issues if you want to post MOW equipment here or do another MOW thread

Looking forward to seeing the crane
Click to expand...
I'm procrastinating a bit on it, but only because I am determining my plan of attack. I have a Tichy Boom Car, unbuilt, that I may rob some detail parts off of for this crane, and the Bachmann boom/work car will get some of those parts as well.
TLOC said:
Anything is possible on the Railroad. If somebody told you those were too crusty someone else would find a prototype photo of that. I like them but I’m a rust bucket lover

I’m not sure how old the gons would be in 1990 but they usually would have been in interchange service for 40 years and after that kept in service for internal work, not for interchange.
Click to expand...
So scrap gondolas are fitting by this point!
logandsawman said:
Your coloring looks great but to be perfectly frank you really need some dents with an authentic scrap load.

My 2 cents

Dave LASM
Click to expand...
You aren't wrong. I'll have to drive by the train yard by my job; they have a few damaged gons on a siding in the yard. I'll use some of those for inspiration, add some dents, and some rust streaks to go along with them.
C&OMtnMan said:
Well, I finally got to my pin wash on the single-sheathed B&O box cars. I had ideal conditionas for doing this outdoors: 84degrees F and 47% RH.

I wanted outdoors in particular to breathe some fresh air. My minor illness was coronavirus. Caught it from my mom while she was hospitalized on another matter. (Or maybe we both caught it at the hospital.) My sister got it as well. Everyone is recovered.

By way of reminder and direct comparison, here are before photos of the two cars on location where I did the work outdoors, in their Tamiya gloss coat:

View attachment 198862
View attachment 198863

The wash was made from Master’s Touch (Hobby Lobby) Lamp Black, thinned about10:1 with mineral spirits, brushed on with a small, flat soft-bristle brush. It went on considerably dark, so I “washed down the wash” with some clear mineral spirits. I went back and forth with more of the wash, dilute & re-wet the excess with mineral spirits, draw off the excess with a Q-tip, rinse and repeat rather literally.

Mineral spirits is (are?) an incredibly forgiving medium to work with (learned through years of woodworking - you have a good long working time, can redissolve what the mineral spirits is the carrier of, so you can fix almost any mistake before it becomes permanent. On the negative side, you can’t really build coats efficiently because things redissolve, and the long working time entails a long drying time.

Here are the after photos, shortly after application:
View attachment 198873
View attachment 198874

Those photos only hint at anything being done. Then there is this one back indoors:

View attachment 198877

I don’t think any photo is going to show what happened until these thing get a clear flat on them.

And due to workload and family considerations, that could be 3-7 weeks away.
Click to expand...
Glad to see you on the mend.

Yes the pin wash is hard to see at times, but it's more for the shadow effect than anything here. Looking forward to seeing how that car progresses! That matte coat should really bring it out.

-RC
 
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