Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

[Smudge617]

So I've been trying to catch up on my weathering, this is the Pemco CN Reefer, any tips or criticisms or things I've done wrong are welcome, it's not sealed so I can make changes. I'm going for a slightly dirt/dusty look, as in "I've just travelled the Mojave desert" kinda look.

Unfortunately the paint had peeled off where the TARA information should be and I don't have any decals for a reefer.

I think the door runner sills need to be darker.

 

[CambriaArea51]

I'm going for a slightly dirt/dusty look

I would rust the trucks a little to give some dimension, and a little grimy black to the vents. The rest of the car looks great.

 

[Smudge617]

I would rust the trucks a little to give some dimension, and a little grimy black to the vents. The of the car looks great.

Thank you, I'll do that this week.

 

[TLOC]

Hi guys, Chris sorry I just opened the thread for the first time in many days. I will look and comment at the boxcar

I received another batch of cars from HomeShops.net. Private model Railroad freelance names and these 3 cars by Tangent are superbly done.

Here are the 3 received a couple hours ago

Here are the last 7 cars including todays shipment from HomeShops. The 5 not weathered currently are at the weathering bench with trucks and wheels removed. The cars are waiting a turn to be cleaned and clear coated sometime today/evening

 

[Smudge617]

Hi guys, Chris sorry I just opened the thread for the first time in many days. I will look and comment at the boxcar

I received another batch of cars from HomeShops.net. Private model Railroad freelance names and these 3 cars by Tangent are superbly done.

Here are the 3 received a couple hours ago
View attachment 175213View attachment 175214View attachment 175215


Here are the last 7 cars including todays shipment from HomeShops. The 5 not weathered currently are at the weathering bench with trucks and wheels removed. The cars are waiting a turn to be cleaned and clear coated sometime today/evening
View attachment 175216View attachment 175217View attachment 175218

I love that Washington Northern, can't wait to see what you do with these new Tangent cars you have.

Not a problem Tom, I haven't touched the car yet.

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Good morning!

It’s taken me a lot longer to get these done than I had anticipated, (life and all that, you know) but I finally completed my latest batch of hoppers.

I made some adaptations to my “two-tone” rust approach, and made more use of some of @TLOC ’s techniques (wet-on-wet, alcohol-thinned Tamiya white with X-21), and have, I think, some greatly improved results.

The two-tone approach I used in prior batches (photos in prior posts in this thread) consisted of Mission Models Standard Rust (for new, brighter rust), and Vallejo Air Burnt Umber (for darker, established rust). For the new approach, I created three mixes from those two colors, for a total of five tones. From brighter to darker, they are:

1. Miisson Models standard rust (MMSR)
2. Two parts MMSR to one VBU
3. 1:1 MMSR/VBU
4. One part MMSR to two parts VBU
5. Valero Burnt Umber (VBU)

I’m going to refer to these tones by the numbers above for the discussion of this batch of hoppers.

I had a second Atlas 90-ton hopper to use as a test piece. I decided to use it rather than clean off the first, as I wanted to see them side-by-side when done.

So: I started with a brushed-on wash of #2 for panels and other areas that were to have large-scale general rusting. Then, while that was still wet, brush on some undiluted tone #2 where heavier rust was advancing, then, draw it either up or down to the panel edge, away from direction of advancement of the rust. Then while that was still wet, do the same with #4, starting a bit further away from the front line of advancing rust.

The goal of using wet-on-wet was twofold:

1. Smoother color transitions
2. Avoid abrupt layer buildup.

Here is the result, prior to chalking and sealing:

And here it is with the first test car. (showing the other side) The first test car was intentionally understated with the rust, but this time I went heavy with it, as efficient use of a test piece should include testing out everything that you’re considering, so long as you’re not putting on too much.

And here is the finished car. The weathering chalks were Masters Touch earth tones light & dark greys mixed for a medium/lightish hue, and a dark gray from the Sargent Art gray tone assortment.

The chalks made the rust areas darker (not really a positive, as my room is a bit dimly lit), and it pulled the colors closer together & smoothed out the color transitions.

The camera was up close and with the flash on, to be able to get the colors to show.

Despite that, I think it’s the best rusting job I’ve done, bettering even the other cars of this batch.

Trucks were weathered with a 1:1 mix of Mission Models Brown (just plain brown) and VBU. A little dusting with medium brown and dark brown Master’s Touch pastels, about 1:1. Wheels weathered with the same chalk mix. Did all wheels and trucks for all cars of this batch the same way.

The other cars:

That one above was #3 and #5. Probably “more realistic colors,” but too dark in my light. Don’t really like it, but it gives some variety to what I’m cranking out, so it stays.

These next two, were back to using tones #2 and #4, and wanting them to have some heavily rusted areas:

These remaining three, I went for really only minimal rust:

I really hadn’t worked much on relatively clean cars or heavy rustbuckets, so I decided to focus on adding a few of each with this batch.

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Two more things:

1. Edited the above post for typos and to insert some missing bits that probably arose during photo insertion.
2. I had to shelve my idea for making painting pattern pieces out of wood - I had several suitable pieces to try the idea, but when I test fit them on, they left marks in the fade & clear coats on the model:

Counting the panels from the left, the scratches are in #4 and #5. Since it was leaving a mark every time it touched the model, I just shelved the idea for the time being

 

[Smudge617]

So following the advice given I've darkened the trucks and wheels, and the grill, added a bit of dirt and rust to the door rollers, and I've also done a little work on the roof, but I'm really not happy with the roof.

 

[CambriaArea51]

I'm really not happy with the roof

Well.....It's hard to do in that 98% of the time when you look at a train on Youtube for example you see either the right or left side depending where the camera was. These 2 for example are filmed from a bridge so you see the top and side. So in your case there are several different box cars that weather differently. Some the high spots rust and the ribs in between are not. Some not rusted yet the sides are faded and rust spots.
As for Tom, you'll see the graffiti on the top of the UP refridged cars, something you wouldn't see normally. The tank cars how they rust on top from the condensation, along with those tank cars that got repainted on top.
As for me I see how many grain cars have grain spillage and how that affects the rust on top and down the sides. How replaced hatches have different colors or replaced walkways that are painted compared to the rusted sections.

 

[Smudge617]

Well.....It's hard to do in that 98% of the time when you look at a train on Youtube for example you see either the right or left side depending where the camera was. These 2 for example are filmed from a bridge so you see the top and side. So in your case there are several different box cars that weather differently. Some the high spots rust and the ribs in between are not. Some not rusted yet the sides are faded and rust spots.
As for Tom, you'll see the graffiti on the top of the UP refridged cars, something you wouldn't see normally. The tank cars how they rust on top from the condensation, along with those tank cars that got repainted on top.
As for me I see how many grain cars have grain spillage and how that affects the rust on top and down the sides. How replaced hatches have different colors or replaced walkways that are painted compared to the rusted sections.

I see your point, maybe I'll leave this as it is then.

 

[TLOC]

Chris even before I just watched the 2 videos Tom (cambriaArea51) showed I liked your roof. I want to always tell my weathering clients that not all cars are rust buckets, even heavily weathered or full of graffiti. Those are 2 EXCELLENT videos for me to keep and share with my clients. Get the roof shots, especially on a complete train seem in my searching to be rare. For this to get top views and still see the sides of the cars is great and helpful to the modeler!

Tom’s reply to you is right on point. We are always too self critical of our work, but IMO that’s not always a bad thing.

 

[TLOC]

Well.....It's hard to do in that 98% of the time when you look at a train on Youtube for example you see either the right or left side depending where the camera was. These 2 for example are filmed from a bridge so you see the top and side. So in your case there are several different box cars that weather differently. Some the high spots rust and the ribs in between are not. Some not rusted yet the sides are faded and rust spots.
As for Tom, you'll see the graffiti on the top of the UP refridged cars, something you wouldn't see normally. The tank cars how they rust on top from the condensation, along with those tank cars that got repainted on top.
As for me I see how many grain cars have grain spillage and how that affects the rust on top and down the sides. How replaced hatches have different colors or replaced walkways that are painted compared to the rusted sections.

Tom, just an excellent share, thank you.

That Reefer with the graffiti tags will make an appearance in my trains once Scaletrains, Athearn and Walthers actually release the announced reefers they have coming.

Wonderful shots in both videos of disappointing clean (to me) Centerbeam cars. In the first video though the end of the train had some centerbeams that a brown one was very faded, debris on the decks of another and the final car while green was faded with some rust. I have a tough time with Centerbeam brown cars but just a fade and debris maybe what I do on the 2 for me on the bench now

The deck on the bulkhead directly behind the roof tagged Reefer is an excellent example of rusted decking and not a fading wood deck. I have taken some screen shots of each car and saved the videos to the library.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning!

It’s taken me a lot longer to get these done than I had anticipated, (life and all that, you know) but I finally completed my latest batch of hoppers.

I made some adaptations to my “two-tone” rust approach, and made more use of some of @TLOC ’s techniques (wet-on-wet, alcohol-thinned Tamiya white with X-21), and have, I think, some greatly improved results.

The two-tone approach I used in prior batches (photos in prior posts in this thread) consisted of Mission Models Standard Rust (for new, brighter rust), and Vallejo Air Burnt Umber (for darker, established rust). For the new approach, I created three mixes from those two colors, for a total of five tones. From brighter to darker, they are:

1. Miisson Models standard rust (MMSR)
2. Two parts MMSR to one VBU
3. 1:1 MMSR/VBU
4. One part MMSR to two parts VBU
5. Valero Burnt Umber (VBU)

I’m going to refer to these tones by the numbers above for the discussion of this batch of hoppers.

I had a second Atlas 90-ton hopper to use as a test piece. I decided to use it rather than clean off the first, as I wanted to see them side-by-side when done.

So: I started with a brushed-on wash of #2 for panels an other areas that were to have large-scale general rusting. Then, while that was still wet, brush on some undiluted tone #2 whereheavier rust was advancing, then, draw it either up or down to the panel edge, away from direction of advancement of the rust. Then while that was still wet, do the same with #4, starting a bit further away from the front line of advancing rust.

The goal of using wet-on-wet was twofold:

1. Smoother color transitions
2. Avoid abrupt layer buildup.

Here is the result, prior to chalking and sealing:

View attachment 175241

And here it is with the first test car. (showing the other side) The first test car was intentionally understated with the rust, but this time I went heavy with it, as efficient use of a test piece should include testing out everything that you’re considering, so long as you’re not putting on too much.

View attachment 175243

And here is the finished car. The weathering chalks were Masters Touch earth tones light dark grey mixed for a medium/lightish hue, and a dark gray from the Sargent Art gray tone assortment.

The chalks made the rust areas darker (not really a positive, as my room is a bit dimly lit), and it pulled the colors closer together & smoothed out the color transitions.

View attachment 175244

The camera was up close and with the flash on, to be able to get the colors to show.

Despite that, I think it’s the best rusting job I’ve done, bettering even the other cars of this batch.

Trucks weathered with a 1:1 mix of Mission Models Brown (just plain brown) and VBU. A little dusting with medium brown and dark brown Master’s Touch pastels, about 1:1. Wheels weathered with the same chalk mix. Did all wheels and truck for all cars of this batch the same way.

The other cars:

View attachment 175246

That one above was #3 and #5. Probably “more realistic colors,” but too dark in my light. Don’t really like it, but it gives some variety to what I’m cranking out, so it stays.

These next two,

View attachment 175247
View attachment 175248

These remaining three, I went for really only minimal rust:

View attachment 175249
View attachment 175250
View attachment 175251

I really hadn’t worked much on relatively clean cars or heavy rustbuckets, so I decided to focus on adding a few of each with this batch.

You have a great mix of cars here. You definitely are rolling in the right direction. I love the rust splotches/spots and streaking. I like the fades. Those cars look like they have been around for various lengths of time and IMO they look real.

 

[C&OMtnMan]

You have a great mix of cars here. You definitely are rolling in the right direction. I love the rust splotches/spots and streaking. I like the fades. Those cars look like they have been around for various lengths of time and IMO they look real.

TomO,

That is better than anything I could have hoped to hear!

I think I will be insufferably pleased with myself for at least a week!

 

[TLOC]

TomO,

That is better than anything I could have hoped to hear!

I think I will be insufferably pleased with myself for at least a week!

Good work is good work

 

[CambriaArea51]

Tom, just an excellent share, thank you.

I'm glad it can help you. It had a nice mix of the cars that we've been weathering lately.

 

[migalyto]

That Reefer with the graffiti tags will make an appearance in my trains once Scaletrains, Athearn and Walthers actually release the announced reefers they have coming.

I'm so looking forward to getting my Scaletrains reefers. We have been waiting a long time for these!

Gives me hope we will eventually see Cryotrans, and Lineage reefers in the future.

 

[CambriaArea51]

I'm so looking forward to getting my Scaletrains reefers. We have been waiting a long time for these!

Gives me hope we will eventually see Cryotrans, and Lineage reefers in the future.

The 64' ones that they did also.

 

[TLOC]

I think

I'm so looking forward to getting my Scaletrains reefers. We have been waiting a long time for these!

Gives me hope we will eventually see Cryotrans, and Lineage reefers in the future.

I believe you will get your wish from ST on those cars.

I have a bunch of the 82’ cars pre-ordered. I stopped doing pre-orders a few years ago but for these I am ignoring my own rules. I ordered 6 each of the 3 styles (eras) they have coming. I made sure though I had pre-orders and deposits for weathering 15 of them. I have promised myself to actually keep 3.

 

[migalyto]

I think

I believe you will get your wish from ST on those cars.

I have a bunch of the 82’ cars pre-ordered. I stopped doing pre-orders a few years ago but for these I am ignoring my own rules. I ordered 6 each of the 3 styles (eras) they have coming. I made sure though I had pre-orders and deposits for weathering 15 of them. I have promised myself to actually keep 3.

The pre-order on these were probably a good idea. I see the pre-orders for the non-sound have been sold out for a couple of months now. These won't last but a couple of hours out in the wild once released. I don't pre-order much either, but these I defiantly did. Good thing is a second run should come shortly after.