A “less is more” steel boxcar:
This is a new piece, an Atlas double-door 40-ft box car. Did the rust streak at the end of the door slide with a Vallejo burnt umber wash followed by some uncut strength of the same.
Then, added about 1/4 drop of black to that wash, and used it for highliting the corrogations in, and edges of, the doors, & the door tracks, the roof detail, and to grime up the ladder and hand grab areas..
i wanted thus to look a bit newer than my other steel N&W and C&O boxcars, so I decided to forego my normal “100% wipe down” with pastels. Instead, I just went for a couple of darkened streaks, using an approx. 1:1:1 mix of brown, red/orange, and dark gray from the Master’s Touch earth tone pastel set.
To darken up the roof for some good steam era soot and grime, I added to the above pastel mix, some black and the darkest gray, both from Argent Art’s grey pastel assortment.
I also used the same dark pastel mix to dust over and around where I had used the dark wash to highlight ladders and hand
Final detail before sealing with Testor’s Dullcote was a litlle white pastel streaking down from where I had faded the lettering. I didn’t put any directly under the door track, as I figured the continual streaking of rust there would overwhelm the lettering runoff.
Trucks weathered with 1:1 mix of normal brown & dark brown Masters Touch pastels, applied by dipping a brush into 70% isopropyl alcohol, dipping into the pastel mixture, then painting wheel & truck faces. (99% evaporates too quick to paint it on, and plain water takes too long to dry)
Above picture is with flash, which helps highlight the darkness of the grimed-up roof, below is without:
And here is a bit of a look down at the roof:
P.S.: I didn’t wipe the white letter run streak directly below the end of the door track, as I figured the continual streaking rust would always overrun it.
