Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

[Smudge617]

Tom and Chris, so true. I have repeat customers and they say they like to love my work and that works for me. What I feel bad about is the ridiculous cost of postage

Have a great day

True, but postage is beyond your control, so not much you can do about it really.

 

[TLOC]

Vince RA, the Derrick car looks great. Nice use of the washes and those wheels on the deck are awesome.

The boxcars are very nice. The peeling effect would have taken them to the next level but the look right in my eyes as is. I love the roofs.

The jimmies look great especially the one with the coal. What are you using to makeup the black washes?

 

[Vince-RA]

Vince RA, the Derrick car looks great. Nice use of the washes and those wheels on the deck are awesome.

The boxcars are very nice. The peeling effect would have taken them to the next level but the look right in my eyes as is. I love the roofs.

The jimmies look great especially the one with the coal. What are you using to makeup the black washes?

Thanks Tom, much appreciated. The black wash is 50% isopropyl alcohol and el cheapo black acrylic paint. I originally used it to stain the decks of flat cars, works great for that. I would guess there are at least a half dozen layers on the coal jimmie, maybe more. I'll do the other one to match at some point, but I'm weathered out for the moment

 

[TLOC]

Thanks Tom, much appreciated. The black wash is 50% isopropyl alcohol and el cheapo black acrylic paint. I originally used it to stain the decks of flat cars, works great for that. I would guess there are at least a half dozen layers on the coal jimmie, maybe more. I'll do the other one to match at some point, but I'm weathered out for the moment

Weathered out for the moment. Love that and yep understand that.

I started out with black ink and water. I Isopropyl Alcohol and acrylic, thanks I need to play with that

 

[CambriaArea51]

Vince- nice job on the cars. I like the chain on the derrick car, looks good having real chain.

 

[TLOC]

True, but postage is beyond your control, so not much you can do about it really.

I generally don’t complain about costs. To me costs, as you say, nothing can be done about that. I truly understand the price of doing business.

Postage though just irks me for some reason. I have talked to my postal delivery person quite a bit over the years. He delivers to the office which is officially our residential address as we get no mail delivered to the house. Much of it needs to be signed for so he comes in. He often has operated on the layout over the years. He is claiming the only way the USPS is keeping staff is to over pay them. But he is irked by the large amounts of unneeded staff in the distribution centers.

ohwell

 

[Vince-RA]

Weathered out for the moment. Love that and yep understand that.

I started out with black ink and water. I Isopropyl Alcohol and acrylic, thanks I need to play with that

One nice aspect of alcohol is that it dries very quickly, so you can do multiple layers back to back. I like to leave some unmixed chunks of paint (probably helps that the paint I am using is old and way past prime), when you get one of the chunks in the brush you can add some nice streak effects. Now that I think of it, I did this with a brown wash on the boxcar, that's where a bunch of the streaks on the side came from.

 

[Vince-RA]

Vince- nice job on the cars. I like the chain on the derrick car, looks good having real chain.

Thanks, completely agreed. Especially consider the $9 price tag it's a really nice kit (chain included!). Just make sure you have a good set of small files and a good assortment of drill bits (I should have written down the sizes, but IIRC at least #51, #56, and #65)

 

[CambriaArea51]

Started this project about a year ago. Ran into a problem getting the NS decals to finish the project.I have 8 of 12 done, just painted the last 4. The NS decals are used for some data and the font type of the numbers. The "CSX" is left over from doing the 4750 grain hoppers along with some data. Last will be the light weathering in a few days.

 

[TLOC]

Started this project about a year ago. Ran into a problem getting the NS decals to finish the project.I have 8 of 12 done, just painted the last 4. The NS decals are used for some data and the font type of the numbers. The "CSX" is left over from doing the 4750 grain hoppers along with some data. Last will be the light weathering in a few days.View attachment 155701View attachment 155702View attachment 155703View attachment 155704

Thanks for sharing these Tom. I love watching things come together. Projects are great no matter how long it takes. I always hesitate when it comes to decals. I have issues keeping them straight. Those look excellent. Any secret tips?

 

[TLOC]

One nice aspect of alcohol is that it dries very quickly, so you can do multiple layers back to back. I like to leave some unmixed chunks of paint (probably helps that the paint I am using is old and way past prime), when you get one of the chunks in the brush you can add some nice streak effects. Now that I think of it, I did this with a brown wash on the boxcar, that's where a bunch of the streaks on the side came from.

Agree. Alcohol is a great mixing agent and dries quickly. Such a versatile product. I have Isopropyl Alcohol in 70%, 91% and 99% strengths. Each have their advantages and of course disadvantages.

 

[TLOC]

Thanks, completely agreed. Especially consider the $9 price tag it's a really nice kit (chain included!). Just make sure you have a good set of small files and a good assortment of drill bits (I should have written down the sizes, but IIRC at least #51, #56, and #65)

Good scale chain is difficult to find. I turned down a client request to chain down loads on his weathering projects. Army tanks in desert camo on the flat cars because of the chain. We disagreed on what to use.

What product are you using?

 

[CambriaArea51]

Thanks for sharing these Tom. I love watching things come together. Projects are great no matter how long it takes. I always hesitate when it comes to decals. I have issues keeping them straight. Those look excellent. Any secret tips?

The number one tip is don't drink coffee before decaling.
Gloss coat before decaling (if painted) I use Micro set when putting on the decals, it gives you time to adjust them especially if your doing individual letters and numbers. A foam cradle to keep the car straight helps getting the decals straight. Reference the lines on the car, ribs for example help to get the decals straight.
Optivisors help in seeing, to get them straight. A Qtip to soak up excess fluid.
Walthers solvaset to snug them down.

 

[Vince-RA]

Good scale chain is difficult to find. I turned down a client request to chain down loads on his weathering projects. Army tanks in desert camo on the flat cars because of the chain. We disagreed on what to use.

What product are you using?

This came with the kit, I suspect it's the A-Line scale chain: https://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/alp/alp29221.htm

I've used this elsewhere, it's very nice stuff although the blackening will come off if handled too much. This is the 15 links per inch:

 

[Smudge617]

Here is my first attempt at weathering a freight car, personally I think it's a poor attempt, not helped by the clouding I got on one side, probably caused by me being a little overzealous with the spray varnish.

Comment's are welcome, please be kind.

 

[santafewillie]

Very good for a first attempt. Clouding can be caused by using alcohol on a car previously spray-painted with some brands of dull coat. I've read that the cloudiness can be corrected by another spraying of dull coat, but I haven't ever needed to try.

 

[Smudge617]

Very good for a first attempt. Clouding can be caused by using alcohol on a car previously spray-painted with some brands of dull coat. I've read that the cloudiness can be corrected by another spraying of dull coat, but I haven't ever needed to try.

Thanks, I'll try that suggestion.

 

[TLOC]

The number one tip is don't drink coffee before decaling.
Gloss coat before decaling (if painted) I use Micro set when putting on the decals, it gives you time to adjust them especially if your doing individual letters and numbers. A foam cradle to keep the car straight helps getting the decals straight. Reference the lines on the car, ribs for example help to get the decals straight.
Optivisors help in seeing, to get them straight. A Qtip to soak up excess fluid.
Walthers solvaset to snug them down.

I have 6 woodchip hoppers to strip, paint, decal and weather for my Wisconsin River Valley and Terminal RR that has been being put off 2 years this coming January.

Tom thanks for the tips and I will add one more. The most troublesome one for me is patience.

 

[TLOC]

Very good for a first attempt. Clouding can be caused by using alcohol on a car previously spray-painted with some brands of dull coat. I've read that the cloudiness can be corrected by another spraying of dull coat, but I haven't ever needed to try.

Thanks Willie. Great tip and I will confirm it works. I thought I had ruined a very expensive hard to get car for someone when the whole thing clouded over. Another light spray of the dull coat cleared it up.

 

[TLOC]

Here is my first attempt at weathering a freight car, personally I think it's a poor attempt, not helped by the clouding I got on one side, probably caused by me being a little overzealous with the spray varnish.

Comment's are welcome, please be kind.

View attachment 155791View attachment 155792

1st attempt! Heck, I have seen the work by guys who get paid and don’t do as well. Your fade is nicely done, especially on the letters. Everything looks on this side to be running from top to bottom. Smudge, if you don’t like it just keep adding washes to it. Brown or the oxide red colors in my book along with the dark green or dark blues are tough to weather and get rust effects. I see Vallejo Air color bottles, they are very forgiving if you want to change up. Are you spraying or hand brushing?

Play with it and remember, there is a prototype for everything out there. Have fun with it. If you still dislike it, strip it down and start over. That’s always fun and sometimes the strip down leaves an effect you may love