Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

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Upcoming projects to decal and weather.View attachment 144674View attachment 144675

Excellent blank canvas to create your masterpieces. Can’t wait to see you start and looking forward to it

I have been looking for undecorated or even data only covered hoppers. I would like 3 to 5 I could do in my free lance. I found at Trainlife.com undecorated Tangent kits but while I am not a cheap modeler, I am not a fool. I will not pay $54.99 for a kit! The Accurail kits are Data only but are out of stock everywhere but Spring Creek but their stock numbers amounts always seem wrong when I order from them, so no more will I!

TomO

 

[TLOC]

Nice Tom. Are those going to be some CSX Hoppers? I just seen some like those down on the river front in St. Louis wish I got a pic of them.

Closest I could find on the AEX

I am not sure what CSX you would be turning these into. Any pictures since I am a visual person. ( you guy knew that though)

TomO

 

[Greg@mnrr]

After seeing the hoppers in this Thread, I reminded myself that somewhere in one of plastic storage containers I have some WC, SOO and MILW concrete and general purpose covered hoppers. I want to weather these cars, some lightly and at least one with a heavy coat of abuse.

I have a secret viewing spot of the Butler, Wisconsin yard lead train where I can legally park and have my front bumper almost on the right-of-way to watch the trains slowly enter and depart the yard. I have a fun story about rail fanning at this location.

One day I park in my legal spot and a signal crew was working on a some equipment and one of the repair crew members had an interest in why I was sitting there in my truck. After about an hour, he walked over to me and very he politely asked me what I was doing. I told him I was a model railroader an this spot was great for observing trains as they slowly passed. He laughed and said all traffic on the right of way was stopped and the next train would be in about three hours! I was wasting my time and it would be dark when the next train came by.

I have to go back there with a lunch and watch trains.

Greg

 

[santafewillie]

Wow! It has been a month since I had time to check this thread. Great work on the pulpwood cars Tom. And also to you Lee on the boxcars. I haven't weathered any freight cars in over 18 months, and I need to reactivate my meager talents.

 

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Wow! It has been a month since I had time to check this thread. Great work on the pulpwood cars Tom. And also to you Lee on the boxcars. I haven't weathered any freight cars in over 18 months, and I need to reactivate my meager talents.

Thanks for checking back in WILLIE. With all you do with your buildings, weathering a piece of rolling stock for you should be a simple task

tomO

 

[CambriaArea51]

Excellent blank canvas to create your masterpieces. Can’t wait to see you start and looking forward to it

I have been looking for undecorated or even data only covered hoppers. I would like 3 to 5 I could do in my free lance. I found at Trainlife.com undecorated Tangent kits but while I am not a cheap modeler, I am not a fool. I will not pay $54.99 for a kit! The Accurail kits are Data only but are out of stock everywhere but Spring Creek but their stock numbers amounts always seem wrong when I order from them, so no more will I!

TomO

Thank you. The 2 gray cars were undecorated, painted gray and will be AEX for the phosphate train. The other two were Cargill cars that got CSX tan and will be grain express like these below.
Tom- If I can't find what I want and can get the paint and decals I'll make my own. My grain train is half BNSF cars that I repainted and decaled.

 

[TrucTrain55]

Thank you. The 2 gray cars were undecorated, painted gray and will be AEX for the phosphate train. The other two were Cargill cars that got CSX tan and will be grain express like these below.
Tom- If I can't find what I want and can get the paint and decals I'll make my own. My grain train is half BNSF cars that I repainted and decaled.View attachment 144708View attachment 144709

Nice Streaking on the sides Tom. I like these CSX Yellow cars I have a couple I need to decal yet I can’t remember what yellow I used but it looks dead on to them thanks for sharing.

 

[TLOC]

Thank you. The 2 gray cars were undecorated, painted gray and will be AEX for the phosphate train. The other two were Cargill cars that got CSX tan and will be grain express like these below.
Tom- If I can't find what I want and can get the paint and decals I'll make my own. My grain train is half BNSF cars that I repainted and decaled.View attachment 144708View attachment 144709

Those look great

TomO

 

[cv_acr]

I think the little WC 2-bay hoppers were used for roofing granules (crushed mineral used for the colour on asphalt shingles) service. They certainly don't have the spill weathering that typical cement cars accumulate.

 

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I think the little WC 2-bay hoppers were used for roofing granules (crushed mineral used for the colour on asphalt shingles) service. They certainly don't have the spill weathering that typical cement cars accumulate.

Chris

You are correct. WC purchased the cars for the 3m roofing granule plant in Wausau, Wi. For 11 years I worked next door to 3m when the Milwaukee Road and CNW both worked the plant in Wausau. I worked at Crestline Windows. The land the window company was on is now a brownfield under environmental remediation

TomO

the 3M plant is at the top of the picture

3M security believes pictures from public property are not ok

these 2 images are from Google Earth

 

[TLOC]

Hey, I’m back. After cleaning the painting bench I pulled out the WC cars to be weathered again.

These cars will be done with various Pan Pastels and already today some #71.040 Burnt Umber from Vallejo Air.

Since I had the paint booth rebuilt this area of the shop has driven me nuts. So much so I have stayed away. I reorganized it into my paint prep and weathering station plus electronics as the DCC programing track is still above. The new paint booth is maybe 20’ away but this might work for now.

The 2 cars are WC 84676 and WC 8469 and had been faded a couple weeks ago. All previous attempts of weathering were stripped off and Vallejo Air dark umber #71.040has been used as dark rust. Some Orange Extra Dark #280.1 pan pastel has been applied to #84676.

I don’t have a lot of Pan Pastels 16 plus 6 duplicates for a total of 22. I have used all 16 but do find myself coming back to 7. These will last as a bit goes a long way.

Vallejo Air, I use for hand brushing and rarely do use it in the air brush. 26 colors plus 8 duplicate. I have used all 26 colors but find my self coming back to 12.

Vallejo Model Color and Panzer Aces also for hand brushing and I have 5 colors with only 1 duplicate, for a total of 6. The 2 Panzer Aces are light and dark rust and they work great on structures. I constantly use these somewhere on the layout or at the painting bench.

Tamiya, I have 15 paint jars of which 4 are duplicates, so 11 various colors. Constantly in use when I was painting and weathering before vacation. If I use the air brush 98% of the time Tamiya is being blown. I love these and I buy them from scalehobbyist.com. The best pricing on any brand of paint on the internet that I have been able to find.

I have 2 tubes of oils but just used so far on a test gondola. They are a different beast.

I have a few washes from Tamiya (2), Vallejo (3), AK interactive (2) and Vallejo (2). But, I find mixing my own works fairly well and I will not be replacing these.

Hopefully these cars will work out for me. The bottom by the dump gates and the splatter from road bed grime had me stumped but we shall see…

Have a great day
TomO

 

[CambriaArea51]

Nice job Tom. By the way you must eat a lot of eggs so you can weather.

 

[TLOC]

Nice job Tom. By the way you must eat a lot of eggs so you can weather.

Eggs, maybe 1 a week.

I have 6 crates I use and have been using this batch of 6 maybe 3 years. It was cheaper then buying one of those padded locomotive cradles many moons ago. They work well for me.

TomO

 

[TLOC]

Hi, back with photos of the 3 WC covered hoppers. They will be posted separately due to forum software picture posting limitations. PLUS, you know I am not the “atta boy” type of guy. I want your constructive criticism which means why don’t you enjoy it and how should I fix it. With each car posted separately this will concentrate your responses.

I don’t mind if you dislike it but I want to know why and what your constructive criticism is. None of you have been mean, (I beat myself up, don’t need that help from you) but you have been honest, please continue that.

This car is a mix of products to get it this far. Some Pan Pastels, some air brushed Tamiya Arcylics and some hand painted Vallejo Air. Plus a few coats in between of Testors getting super expensive Dull Cote in the can.

As for being honest, I have decided this car will be stripped and started over. But my reasons will hold until I review and comment on what you say. I will be away from the bench for a few days starting at 6:40am 5/5 as the Doctors get to play the healing game. Just a clean up procedure but I am off my thyroid replacement meds and per the plan I have absolutely no energy.

Let me know what you think both the good and not so good.

TomO

 

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WC84663. I dislike the roof intensely. It just doesn’t work for me

Guy from the Diner has sent me some roof top pictures after I sent out a plea for help. This was done prior to getting the pictures of roofs.

More pictures in the Diner of 5/1

TomO

 

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Car #2 in the WC series of covered hoppers.

WC84669

The side where the number has been faded away I think needs some work on that top line of rust. Should it be straight lined?

TomO (car #3 later, it’s nap time)

 

[TLOC]

That was my third 15-20 minute nap since wake up at 6 this morning. The final WC hopper for your review and comments.

WC 84676

TomO

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Hello TomO: Just my three cents worth on the weathering of the covered hoppers.

You're correct about the weathering on the cars' roof tops. It just doesn't look natural the way we find rusting. Have you considered the sponge method of lightly dappling the rust colors on the roof areas? Fade the roof first and then a extremely light wash of rust then followed by the the dappling effects. (Really extremely light.)

Also, have you thought of doing some rust streaking along the sides of the hopper and some rust spotting? I recall an article in MRH about weathering hoppers and they did some streaking on the tops as well as the sides.

Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

mrhpub.com

I found this photo on the web and it maybe of some help to you in your weathering efforts. I can't give the photographer credit for the photo.

The ribs on a hopper for some reason do not like to rust as much as the car sides. I would use powders almost for all the side work and acrylics and some powers on the cars' roofs. I would try fading the sides with dilute oils followed by down ward brushing with a wide brush with a light coating of oil thinner. It's important to start at the top of the car and bring the wide brush straight down in one movement. Or, apply oil paint to the sides of the car and then rub the majority of the oil off the car's sides and let it build up in the sides of the ribs.

I use a base of an acrylic rust color to form an area where rust has established itself and the touch the acrylic once dry with diluted lighter color of oil paint and lets capillarity action move the oil paint. The oil paint with form an area outside of the acrylic paint, just as real rust like to attack the areas around old rust. This would work in areas under the top metal rib where the top meets the sides, along the undersides of the top rib and the roof hatch areas. This method takes a few minutes of practice on an old or cheap car!!!

I haven't done my covered hoppers as of yet and I believe the covered hoppers maybe the hardest pieces of rolling stock to master weathering.
It takes practice to get the weathering on many types of rail cars. There so many methods to weather that it just takes time to find the one you are most comfortable using.

I wrote of this several times, but I have a spot to rail fan where I park my vehicle within just feet from the UP right-of-way and watch the trains roll in and out of the UP Butler, WI yard. One day a 100+ car unit train of covered hoppers passed by and they rolled so slowly that I could catch all the details. Didn't have a camera or phone with me.

Hope your medical procedure goes well and I also have two scheduled as an out patient for next Thursday.

Greg

 

[TLOC]

WC84663 as I mentioned will be stripped. At first the roof but after reviewing it again, I think the whole car

Greg, thank you for the comments.

I have not had any success with the ripped sponge application process. I will pull out the practice bodies and see how it goes again.

I need to read that MRH article as I do read Nick’s stuff in the Weathering Workshop on the Rustbucket Forum.

For me reading or watching about the ”how to” use Oil paints is easy. Actual practice for me has been problematic to say the least. I am JUST now getting comfortable with Tamiya Arcylic. I am not sure I want to do the oils yet. JC’s Riptrack on You Tube is a tremendous source for weathering with oils, IMO. So is Panzermiester

My procedure tomorrow should be fine, thank you. I am more nervous about the Ultra Sound and CT scans next Tuesday. Hoping those find nothing after tomorrows Doctor playing! Good luck with the outpatient stuff.

TomO

 

[Greg@mnrr]

TomO: I like using oils for streaking and fading since they do not dry as fast as an acrylic paint. Oils may take several days to dry to the touch.

Just a note.

Greg