Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

[TLOC]

your gons look great nice work

Thank you

Tom

 

[logandsawman]

Finished with pulp cars for a while. We have gondolas!

I finished up 2 duplicate numbered CN’s 63’ mill gons from Walthers. This was my great buy that I was so proud of that I didn’t buy the numbers of cars I have. It was very deflating when I figured out was wrong. Anyway, they are lightly weathered and on the layout.
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As I finished the Testors dull cote the mail delivery arrived with 2 more. A CN with a number I don’t have and a WC gondola, also the Walthers 63’ mill gondola with drop down ends. They are on the turntable after getting a light base coat of Tamiya Hull Red
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Funny thing. I cannot find these in the Walthers online catalog including when I look for retired pieces. The box says it’s Walthers RTR series. The all are in need of 36” steel wheels and the Kadee #148 whisker coupler I use.

Tomorrow for that exchange.

A FB friend asked if I would do the dents and dings these cars normally have. The prototype pictures I am working from do not have the big bulges and dents I see so commonly done in You Tube videos. I did start experimenting though with a soldering iopron on one side of an old Athearn BB. Tomorrow I will use the heat gun on low and try that as a comparison


TomO

Hi Tom- read on the forum here someone heated up a screwdriver and used that to make the dents.

Maybe used the same torch they started the fire with

 

[TLOC]

Hi Tom- read on the forum here someone heated up a screwdriver and used that to make the dents.

Maybe used the same torch they started the fire with

Thanks Dave. I tried to use my heat gun on low a few months ago and never got the hang of isolated melting. I have been experimenting with the heat gun again and the soldering iron the last couple days. Still not enough control for either one of the methods for me at this time

Geez I do have a propane torch and way too many screw drivers! An experiment now for outside though as I disassembled the paint booth exhaust system about an hour ago.

I do need to dig a little deeper online though for dented gondolas. For the current batch on the work table I am using these pictures as my weather along guides. No dents that are real noticeable, so my experimenting maybe for naught

All pictures are credited but the last 4 which were sent to me but also used with permission personally from the photographer.

TomO

 

[logandsawman]

Thanks Dave. I tried to use my heat gun on low a few months ago and never got the hang of isolated melting. I have been experimenting with the heat gun again and the soldering iron the last couple days. Still not enough control for either one of the methods for me at this time

Geez I do have a propane torch and way too many screw drivers! An experiment now for outside though as I disassembled the paint booth exhaust system about an hour ago.

I do need to dig a little deeper online though for dented gondolas. For the current batch on the work table I am using these pictures as my weather along guides. No dents that are real noticeable, so my experimenting maybe for naught

All pictures are credited but the last 4 which were sent to me but also used with permission personally from the photographer.
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TomO

The most dented ones I have seen were in mow service. I'll try to get a pic

Here are a couple:

Alright, that is a little overboard. I am sure they don't take that one very fast.

The sides are a little puffy

I included this one because of your location.

Did not find the pic I was looking for but some more ideas, maybe

 

[TLOC]

The most dented ones I have seen were in mow service. I'll try to get a pic

Here are a couple:

View attachment 142845

Alright, that is a little overboard. I am sure they don't take that one very fast.

View attachment 142846

The sides are a little puffy

View attachment 142847

I included this one because of your location.

Did not find the pic I was looking for but some more ideas, maybe

Thank you Dave. Even the pictures you posted the bulges and dents aren’t real obvious like the 1st MOW gon.

I am pretty much done weathering until we return from Texas sometime in April. I promised myself that I need to work on the layout till we leave 3/25. I haven’t run a train more then 40’ in weeks

TomO

I really appreciate you looking for me.

 

[logandsawman]

Agree about the lack of dents. They universally seem to puff out a little between the reinforcing steel, however.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

The danger in creating dents is the final effects look like a soldering iron was used to do the denting.

One method that works well for many modelers is to use a high watt soldering gun and a piece of thin steel plate or even a section of bent aluminum can and hold the steel against the side or near the top of the gon and press the heated soldering gun against the steel plate. As the plastic of the gon begins to melt you and shape the damage in many different ways.

I found that bending the metal in a "U" shape work fine for me. Different sizes of the pieces of metal works good for a variety of damaged areas.

Like weathering, you don't need a lot of damage to get the message across that the gondola has seen better days.

Have fun with your project.

Greg

 

[TLOC]

While waiting for ballast dry, (makes watching paint dry very exciting in comparison) I took out the heat gun. On high I heated up a large flat blade screw driver. On the experimental sacrifice of an old Athearn BB bay cube, I got this

Not too bad but as you can see the sill in the bottom picture is distorted. That was from trying the heat gun on the inside of the car and then pushing the flat head screw driver on it. That is a fail even after switching heads on the heat gun and running the heat on low, 545f degrees. 950f degrees on the screw driver head alone does work without distorting other parts of the car.

I really am reluctant to break out the propane torch but I do think it’s worth the try. The heat gun just doesn’t heat the screw driver up enough to allow for some work time. The propane powered flame may!

Greg, thanks for another idea. I just finished drinking from a rare aluminum can in this household. Diet Cream Soda. Anyway, I will pull it from the recycling bin and cut it up after cleaning.

Finally, last night I was spray painting some track. The new toy, the Vortex Mixer, is fantastic. I didn’t realize how little I was shaking and mixing paint. This is day 5 of using it and I am thrilled so far.

TomO

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Here's my weathered gondola.

Greg

 

[TLOC]

View attachment 143000

Here's my weathered gondola.

Greg

That looks great

 

[TLOC]

Tom. Great idea for a Thread hope you don’t mind some of my O Scale Weathering. I learned how to weather many years ago from the Millitary Modelers I still build Millitary stuff but not as much. I’ve done several Lionel PS4 Piggyback Flatcars and have quite a few left to do here are some that I’ve done a couple years ago. I use Mig. Washes and other different pigment powders. View attachment 143058View attachment 143059View attachment 143060View attachment 143061View attachment 143062View attachment 143063View attachment 143064View attachment 143065View attachment 143066View attachment 143067

Lee, no issue come aboard. 1st off I am Scale blind and second weathering in any scale is still weathering. I will try to learn something. Love the flat cars and that Trailer Service load is awesome. Brings back memories of my youth in Chicago’s southwest side. NW had a trailer yard that had trailers that looked like what you are showing. Late 60’s to 76 is my remembrances.

I have not used the Mig washes yet but have a couple. Are they difficult to work with? Any tricks or must have to’s before I venture into those? I use Pan Pastels and I used to use a black ink dilution for panel lines.

Thank you
TomO

 

[gunslinger]

i am not really into 3-rail but those look great, realism is a plus in any scale

 

[TLOC]

i am not really into 3-rail but those look great, realism is a plus in any scale

That is well written. Realism is a plus in any scale.

TomO

 

[TLOC]

I understand I like both HO and O. The thing about a bigger scale is when weathering or building you have to put more effort in it to make it look very convincing. You can hide more mistakes and less effort in the smaller scales. That’s what I’ve found out anyway. Thanks for the complement.

The biggest thing so far weathered is practicing on an old Athearn BB 86’ boxcar from the early 70’. That was a big canvas to work on, I can only imagine about O scale.

TomO

 

[TLOC]

Lee, those are well done.

Love the trailers as they do bring back the memories. But, I am very impressed by the less is more weathering done on the flat car decks. Too often I find myself having to go back and strip down the weathering on the decks I have done. You have done enough to say, these are well used but not abused cars. Even with pictures to go from I still have the heavy hand, but getting better.

Thanks for sharing
TomO

 

[TLOC]

Thanks Tom for the nice complement it’s a real confidence builder for me. I’ve always worried about doing it to much or to little I always start out light and build up to a stopping point then I put it on the layout and see how it blends in seems to work so far. I’ve been in the pulling Intermodal containers now for over 25 years I see lots of spline cars that have a Piggyback trailer on them and there not heavily weathered. I want to do a Sea Container some day now since you started this thread yesterday I started looking more closely at the containers I pull.

Making you think, great!

TomO

 

[TLOC]

I have received few pulp cars minus trucks, wheels and couplers from a Northeastern Wisconsin club. Turns out the 3 pulp cars I did for the FB friend went over great at his club. They gave me a list of the cars with reporting marks On Tuesday. I went online and found 5 of the numbers. They have approved the pictures as they would like those cars to appear. Free reign on the balance of the cars. This will be fun!

I had pulled my next batch of cars to weather off the layout.

There is a Bulford transfer caboose, 3 BLMA before Atlas purchased them, one Atlas, a couple Accurail, 4 Scaletrains.com cars, 2 Intermountain that I really dislike, they roll terribly and it takes some work to fix IMO.

This will wait till we return

TomO

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Looking forward to the weathering you are planning and performing on the transfer caboose. I think I have two maybe three of them one in C&NW and the others MILW.

Nice honor to weather the pulpwood cars from the Northeastern Wisconsin Model Railroad club. Be sure to show use your results on these cars as well.

Have fun!!!

Greg

 

[TLOC]

Good finish. I would laugh about the 10 years between the start and finish but I know I have at least 2 projects that old.

I like the use of the pencils graphite in the tie down pocket. Makes it seem like the tie down chains have rubbed the paint from the pocket.

A thought! Maybe a touch of weathering on the blocking for the tires. They look too new IMO but Cat did spend money for transportation items, they may be new lumber. The deck is well done

TomO

 

[CambriaArea51]

There is a Bulford transfer caboose,

I have a couple of them, added a couple of workers, one was holding a shovel that I cut out to make it look like he's holding a coffee. The other talking on the radio.