Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread


BunkerTheHusky said:
All these cars look so incredible. Truly masterful work everybody! Hope one day to be at the same level.

I might as well put up some photos of my own current project. My railroad had been lacking some proper Maintenance of Way equipment. While most of the high iron is still newly laid, things can still happen out on the rails requiring a crew, a crane, and some severely rusty and beaten equipment, repurposed and rebuilt in a dusty car shop in a forlorn corner of some quiet staging yard. I began with the extremely detailed and well done #2704 Wreck Train Set from the Tichy Train Group, and added a second #2701 Boom Car for good measure. For the segments of the line with catenary wire overhead, a line inspection platform was added to the roof of the tool car. After getting the crew to roll some off-white and safety yellow on the tired wood and steel, I set to work lettering and numbering them for the home rails of the Fox Creek Terminal Railroad. Livery newly applied, the real fun began. These cars haven't seen a restful day since they pulled out of that car shop, and have collected quite their fair share of rust, mud, grease and mold. Too old and tired to care, they sit idly, waiting until the next tie must be replaced or the next battered box car needs to be rerailed.

As of now, the cherry on top, 120 ton Brownhoist crane is still receiving her patina, but the other four cars are ready for the debut here for the first time.
View attachment 165504
View attachment 165505
View attachment 165507
View attachment 165508

The biggest lesson learned on this project is that you can easily go too far with weathering these tiny toy trains. This isn't my first rodeo with adding patina to scale models, but it has been a fair bit since I last got the itch to grime things up. For cars like this, the epic levels of rust and gunk fit the narrative, but other projects may require a lighter hand and a smaller brush.
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Really nicely done.
 
BunkerTheHusky said:
All these cars look so incredible. Truly masterful work everybody! Hope one day to be at the same level.

I might as well put up some photos of my own current project. My railroad had been lacking some proper Maintenance of Way equipment. While most of the high iron is still newly laid, things can still happen out on the rails requiring a crew, a crane, and some severely rusty and beaten equipment, repurposed and rebuilt in a dusty car shop in a forlorn corner of some quiet staging yard. I began with the extremely detailed and well done #2704 Wreck Train Set from the Tichy Train Group, and added a second #2701 Boom Car for good measure. For the segments of the line with catenary wire overhead, a line inspection platform was added to the roof of the tool car. After getting the crew to roll some off-white and safety yellow on the tired wood and steel, I set to work lettering and numbering them for the home rails of the Fox Creek Terminal Railroad. Livery newly applied, the real fun began. These cars haven't seen a restful day since they pulled out of that car shop, and have collected quite their fair share of rust, mud, grease and mold. Too old and tired to care, they sit idly, waiting until the next tie must be replaced or the next battered box car needs to be rerailed.

As of now, the cherry on top, 120 ton Brownhoist crane is still receiving her patina, but the other four cars are ready for the debut here for the first time.
View attachment 165504
View attachment 165505
View attachment 165507
View attachment 165508

The biggest lesson learned on this project is that you can easily go too far with weathering these tiny toy trains. This isn't my first rodeo with adding patina to scale models, but it has been a fair bit since I last got the itch to grime things up. For cars like this, the epic levels of rust and gunk fit the narrative, but other projects may require a lighter hand and a smaller brush.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the weathering thread. Those are very nice thanks for showing them. I fight myself everytime I weather a car without a picture to guide me along. Less is definitively better when it comes to weathering our rails car.

I see your avatar says Chicago. Where abouts? I grew up on the southside, near the Clearing Yards at 68th and Hamlin. Went to Queen of the Universe till we moved out to the southwest suburbs, Oak Forest.
 
TLOC said:
Welcome to the weathering thread. Those are very nice thanks for showing them. I fight myself everytime I weather a car without a picture to guide me along. Less is definitively better when it comes to weathering our rails car.

I see your avatar says Chicago. Where abouts? I grew up on the southside, near the Clearing Yards at 68th and Hamlin. Went to Queen of the Universe till we moved out to the southwest suburbs, Oak Forest.
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Thank you very much! I've lived in the Northwest Suburbs all my life, near Arlington Heights. Saying Chicago is a bit of a lie as I could go for a walk and see farmland, where as it takes me well over an hour to reach down town by car or rail. Still, it's the closest city and most my friends live there. Still nice to see a local here!
 
BunkerTheHusky said:
Thank you very much! I've lived in the Northwest Suburbs all my life, near Arlington Heights. Saying Chicago is a bit of a lie as I could go for a walk and see farmland, where as it takes me well over an hour to reach down town by car or rail. Still, it's the closest city and most my friends live there. Still nice to see a local here!
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Moved out of Illinois and the Chicago suburb of Oak Forest for college in 1970. Been in Wisconsin ever since except for 75-76. It is truly wonderful up here. Spent a lot of time as a kid at Crystal Lake, lots of golf in Barrington, Medina, and had a good friend in Geneva.

Post your weathering of freight cars here and locomotives in the other thread by CambriaArea51 (Tom) and how you achieved your results. We are all still learning.

Again welcome
 
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So I did my wash last night and wasn't very happy with the results. I ended up washing it off to start over. I'm not sure if wetting the model would of helped some. The wash I'm using is Monroe Models delta dirt, Its pre-mixed, but went on very dark. I wonder if thinning it some would work out better?

I will let you all be the judge. Maybe these were OK results, and I'm too big of a critic on myself?

Here was the result of the wash: Both sides of the model.

554AD045-66FF-4DAF-89AE-0C036A959800.jpeg
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migalyto said:
So I did my wash last night and wasn't very happy with the results. I ended up washing it off to start over. I'm not sure if wetting the model would of helped some. The wash I'm using is Monroe Models delta dirt, Its pre-mixed, but went on very dark. I wonder if thinning it some would work out better?

I will let you all be the judge. Maybe these were OK results, and I'm too big of a critic on myself?

Here was the result of the wash: Both sides of the model.

View attachment 165479View attachment 165480
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Looks ok to me, but I'll let our two resident weathering experts give you their opinion.
 
How hard would it be to replace the broken decal before going to anymore trouble? Speaking from zero experience :)
 
Hutch said:
How hard would it be to replace the broken decal before going to anymore trouble? Speaking from zero experience :)
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Actually I think that “broken” decal is kind of neat. Either chip it some more, fade it out, replace it or maybe high lite it as a rusting scratch.

Hutch, experienced or not we need your opinions. You may see something or have a suggestion the poster may have missed and the Crew haven’t said anything about. Suggestions are always welcome here
 
migalyto said:
So I did my wash last night and wasn't very happy with the results. I ended up washing it off to start over. I'm not sure if wetting the model would of helped some. The wash I'm using is Monroe Models delta dirt, Its pre-mixed, but went on very dark. I wonder if thinning it some would work out better?

I will let you all be the judge. Maybe these were OK results, and I'm too big of a critic on myself?

Here was the result of the wash: Both sides of the model.

View attachment 165479View attachment 165480
Click to expand...
I really like the scratched decal side. Well done.

The other side I am torn about. I like it but the it looks like there is a dabbing effect from the sponge. Or the spotting from a “acid” rain shower. Maybe another application with the same color and turn the sponge differently from the previous application.

Unless you are going for a specific effect don’t wet the powders. As I mentioned before though I have not used the Monroe powders. When I have wet Pan Pastels they have clumped and I had to wipe it off.

Are we too harsh a critic on our own work? Yes

What brand of track is that in the second picture?
 
Hutch said:
How do you handle your trains after applying weathering with chalk?
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I wear gloves when dull coating and anything after. Your fingers will leave an oil mark then when use chalk your fingerprint will appear.
migalyto said:
So I did my wash last night and wasn't very happy with the results. I ended up washing it off to start over. I'm not sure if wetting the model would of helped some. The wash I'm using is Monroe Models delta dirt, Its pre-mixed, but went on very dark. I wonder if thinning it some would work out better?

I will let you all be the judge. Maybe these were OK results, and I'm too big of a critic on myself?

Here was the result of the wash: Both sides of the model.

View attachment 165479View attachment 165480
Click to expand...
First pic was prefect, should've left it. Dull coating will lighten it. As for the scratch these hopper cars get sideswiped all the time putting scratches down the side. I would use a dark rust in the scratch and then run it down with lighter rust.
 
CambriaArea51 said:
I wear gloves when dull coating and anything after. Your fingers will leave an oil mark then when use chalk your fingerprint will appear.

First pic was prefect, should've left it. Dull coating will lighten it. As for the scratch these hopper cars get sideswiped all the time putting scratches down the side. I would use a dark rust in the scratch and then run it down with lighter rust.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I understand. Do you spray dull coat over the chalk?
 
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