Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

[mara plutoni]

View attachment 176819View attachment 176820View attachment 176821View attachment 176822View attachment 176823View attachment 176824View attachment 176825View attachment 176826View attachment 176827I had hoped I would never do another Walthers Mainline yellow TBOX 60’ high cube boxcar let alone 4 more. Lightly weathered and a couple may actually reach medium but no graffiti. Originally done per a client request. These are out on FB for sale. Built between 1/2011 and 1/2012 in Mexico. $44 each and if you use the forum email I will include shipping

Tom, how can you do such an effort and sell them! I could not (neither of the 2)

 

[mara plutoni]

Years ago when I started weathering I took it easy. Mostly grimy black and a little rust. Finished off with some dull coat. Now fast forward to today with more experience and using more colors and weathering powders it's time to revisit some of these cars. First up is the coal train. Painted the inside from black to aluminum and the couplers to rust. Weathering to follow.View attachment 178896View attachment 178897View attachment 178898

Seeing the first photo I was about to ask how many cars you had...the answer came with the other pictures...a lot!

 

[mara plutoni]

That’s an excellent idea. My go to is white paper toweling on the floor of the paint booth. No matter how many times I spray the same formulas you never how it will come out of the air brush

Has everybody here have an air brush or do you use cans as well? I only painted things with an old fashioned brush. And never have done any weathering project.

 

[TLOC]

Very nice neat car!

thank you

 

[TLOC]

Tom, how can you do such an effort and sell them! I could not (neither of the 2)

Thanks again Mara!

When it comes to weathering and selling model trains it’s not that hard for me. I generally don’t have a sentimental value attached to the models I buy. Now if one our kids or grandkids give me something that’s different and those won’t be sold.

 

[TLOC]

Has everybody here have an air brush or do you use cans as well? I only painted things with an old fashioned brush. And never have done any weathering project.

Most of my model railroad operator (41folks with 26 layouts) group DO NOT have air brushes and use the spray cans.

When I use a clear coat/varnish I definitely use my airbrush

Most of my fades are done with the airbrush

After the fades most ( but not 100%) everything else is done by creating washes and hand brushing those. Highlights are hand brushed

I have a few spray cans and those I will use on structures until they are used up

 

[TLOC]

Whenever I try doing something like this, I am always too heavy handed with the airbrush.

Chris! Without going back what type of airbrush are you using, single or double action?

I know it’s easy to type, throttle back, lower the air pressure, spray closer, spray farther away, thin the paints but I know it’s not. When I was taught to airbrush brass steam in the 70’s the guying teaching me had me use dye colored water on white paper toweling for awhile. I did a whole bunch of exercises to try to get used to using the airbrush which back then I started with a single action. A couple years later I moved up to a double action brush and it was difficult.

I know there are air brush exercises online. Have you looked into those?

 

[Smudge617]

Chris! Without going back what type of airbrush are you using, single or double action?

I know it’s easy to type, throttle back, lower the air pressure, spray closer, spray farther away, thin the paints but I know it’s not. When I was taught to airbrush brass steam in the 70’s the guying teaching me had me use dye colored water on white paper toweling for awhile. I did a whole bunch of exercises to try to get used to using the airbrush which back then I started with a single action. A couple years later I moved up to a double action brush and it was difficult.

I know there are air brush exercises online. Have you looked into those?

I've two double action airbrushes, a cheap Chinese one and a Harder and Steenbeck I use both depending on what I'm doing, the Chinese one is fine for dull coats and large surfaces, and the Harder and Steenbeck I use for close-in work, I have the same issue with both, I do need more practice with the Harder and Steenbeck tho.

I've just finished re-painting a couple of passenger cars, which I'll post on my thread, they're not bad, but need remedial work as I made several mistakes.

I'll look into the airbrush exercises you mention, they can only help, thanks Tom.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Seeing the first photo I was about to ask how many cars you had...the answer came with the other pictures...a lot!

I have about 65 cars. They go with the coal loader that goes to club shows.

 

[TLOC]

I have about 65 cars. They go with the coal loader that goes to club shows.View attachment 179819

Beautiful train

 

[CambriaArea51]

Beautiful train

Thank you. It can get pretty heavy with 65 live loaded cars. A friend of mine scaled a couple of cars for an average and when added up it was just over 9 pounds.

 

[TLOC]

Thank you. It can get pretty heavy with 65 live loaded cars. A friend of mine scaled a couple of cars for an average and when added up it was just over 9 pounds.

That’s the great thing about big layouts or club layouts. Good sized trains. At the previous home layouts 12 to 15 cars was the huge train. My current layout is 34 with 3 locomotives, but the locals are the 12-15 cars.

 

[mara plutoni]

65 cars plus a couple of locomotives...that is A TRAIN.
In Holland when the cars have a yellow strip at the edge they are in a fixed train. This means no sorting out of cars just loading and unloading.
Is that the same in USA? That would (could) be the coal or ore trains for example.

 

[TLOC]

65 cars plus a couple of locomotives...that is A TRAIN.
In Holland when the cars have a yellow strip at the edge they are in a fixed train. This means no sorting out of cars just loading and unloading.
Is that the same in USA? That would (could) be the coal or ore trains for example.

The professional railroaders can chime in on your question.

We do have unit trains where all the cars are carrying the same product like autos, containers, coal, ore, frack sand, oil, ethanol. Those trains would cross the rails between the origin and destination without any switching moves in between

 

[CambriaArea51]

65 cars plus a couple of locomotives...that is A TRAIN.
In Holland when the cars have a yellow strip at the edge they are in a fixed train. This means no sorting out of cars just loading and unloading.
Is that the same in USA? That would (could) be the coal or ore trains for example.

That was part of the design at the time. Newer cars don't have that bottom stripe.

 

[TLOC]

Next car up to weather is a Wisconsin Central coil car. Looking for prototype pictures and I am finding the choices very slim:

From RRpicturearchives.com and the photographer Keith B is credited along the picture frame

now to find the car to weather, it’s here somewhere

 

[TLOC]

The WC coil car has been started.

First off it gets inspected, trucks and wheels removed and then cleaned. Today’s cleaning method was via airbrush. 70% Isopropyl Alcohol spray at 35psi.

Then the fade

The fade is Tamiya x2 white, xf10 brown and 5 drops of. xf21 flat base. Thinned with x20a. Roughly 20% white, 5% brown and the rest is thinner. I sprayed at 18psi and did the entire car. Let it dry and sprayed again. There are 3 sprays of fade

Next up was the wheel faces and trucks. Before weathering the trucks I did ream the wheel holes

No pictures (tomorrow) of the wheel faces or truck frames. I mixed #302 dark rust 2 drops with 4 drops of #301 light rust and 2 drops of distill water. Both are from the Panzer Aces paint line from Vallejo, hand brushed.

Let’s do some rust! The picture shows my pigments used. Moisten with water the spot the Abteilung 502 light rust will be dabbed. I don’t moisten or wet the brush, dip it dry into the pigment container and stab it on to the car. After thisvdrys, maybe in 15 minutes I do basically the same thing but using the Vallejo brown Iron oxide.

I do the basic same pigment application to the side panels of the car body.

I DO NOT blend with a dry brush at this time. I will let this dry over night and blend tomorrow

I move to the inside of the car body where the steel coils will go. I heavily wet the area and apply both pigments with a moisten not dry brush. No dry time between pigments. No blending…

 

[CambriaArea51]

Another 12 coal cars done. I'm doing 6 differently. I've seen where when axles are replaced and the wheel faces are a light rust color and the bearings caps are blue. One car I painted the springs blue from a car in a yard. Small details that may or may not catch your eye, but breaks up the look on a unit train. Hard to see but the last pics were dulled down with grimy black so the rust and the blue isn't to bright.

 

[migalyto]

Another 12 coal cars done. I'm doing 6 differently. I've seen where when axles are replaced and the wheel faces are a light rust color and the bearings caps are blue. One car I painted the springs blue from a car in a yard. Small details that may or may not catch your eye, but breaks up the look on a unit train. Hard to see but the last pics were dulled down with grimy black so the rust and the blue isn't to bright.

Awesome!!!

Does the graffiti come next.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Awesome!!!

Does the graffiti come next.

Thanks,and Nope.