Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Status
Not open for further replies.
I’ve been in a period of acquisition since weathering my CSX locomotives. For future weathering, I have acquired:

2 C&O ARA (1930s era) 40-ft steel box cars, BLI
2 B&O 1950 50-ft steel box cars, Atlas
1 C&O 1890s-1905 wood box car, Athearn
1 40-ft wood reefer, billboard style, Borden milk, Atlas
2 C&O 70-ton hoppers, 1954-ish, 3-bay, BLI
4 C&O 70-ton hoppers, 1940s, 4-bay, BLI
Those will be fun
 
Those will be fun

I think I’m going to have to belay that fun for a while…

My layout is presently under construction., and right now, my yard is full with cars and engines. I also have a staging siding that is largely full, of modern (but unweathered) rolling stock (aluminum Bethgon coalporters). I have a two-loop main line, and the inner loop is over half full. The outer loop is only 40% built.

I have about 55 weathered cars in entirety. My inner loop is slightly over 50% full with a 33 car train.

Stored away are other previously acquired cars, cabooses, etc. That are “further out” weathering projects.

In short, my layout is congested, and I need to build it out further before I can put more rolling stock on it.

When the outer loop enters service, i’ll be running two trains of 30-35 cars, and have the staging siding under a mountain with the modern train able to roll out when I want, and an active but uncluttered yard, that will allow me to run shorter trains up the local branch line and back.

But for right now, I have to lay rails just to have the room to bring finished cars to the layout.
 
I spent a few hours Saturday on my weathering, turned out my dull coat was settled some and the bottom of the can was pretty heavy. Wife's nail polish remover was a good remedy, however the outcome was unexpected!

Some areas were very heavy and other areas typical, noticeable only after dry. I shook for several minutes vigorously, but no telling how long this product was on the shelf before I purchased it. I let some of the heavy stuff stay and used the white/gray wash to even things out.

Before:

getting ready to weather.jpg


After:

I had worked on some of these in the past but wanted more practice. My system for trucks and wheels also shown. I will be using a slightly different auto body primer, a little more rusty than the last can.

group of four.jpg


You can see where the matte really went on heavy. Some of them looked like the door on the NP truss rod (third) but it came off easy with nail polish remover. I decided to leave the one area as is. I would have liked to have more of a dry brush effect on the ladders, may be going over them.

However, no one can get this close to the cars.
western pacific.jpg


Pretty happy with the WP. Prolly go over the ladders. Trucks do not show up well but I like them.

Soo line.jpg


This soo line has always been a favorite.

Dave LASM
 


I spent a few hours Saturday on my weathering, turned out my dull coat was settled some and the bottom of the can was pretty heavy. Wife's nail polish remover was a good remedy, however the outcome was unexpected!

Some areas were very heavy and other areas typical, noticeable only after dry. I shook for several minutes vigorously, but no telling how long this product was on the shelf before I purchased it. I let some of the heavy stuff stay and used the white/gray wash to even things out.

Before:

View attachment 192974

After:

I had worked on some of these in the past but wanted more practice. My system for trucks and wheels also shown. I will be using a slightly different auto body primer, a little more rusty than the last can.

View attachment 192975

You can see where the matte really went on heavy. Some of them looked like the door on the NP truss rod (third) but it came off easy with nail polish remover. I decided to leave the one area as is. I would have liked to have more of a dry brush effect on the ladders, may be going over them.

However, no one can get this close to the cars.
View attachment 192976

Pretty happy with the WP. Prolly go over the ladders. Trucks do not show up well but I like them.

View attachment 192977

This soo line has always been a favorite.

Dave LASM
Wood ages and weathers differently than steel. If you do anything on these maybe just some rust streaks where the fasteners are and rust the ladders.

Dave, these look very good and really are fine without anymore work needed though.
 
It’s raining and I have no plans for today. My 2 Michigan Interstate cars while not done were put into service on the layout
IMG_6275.jpeg

The fade I like. The roof is lightly done but since I model 2015+ and the car build date is 2005 they should have more grime
IMG_6272.jpeg

The thing missing is the graffiti and a couple tags. I usually tag both sides of a car and the graffiti is just done on 1 side. But these cars are for me and if they are sold it won’t be for years. So today I will start the graffiti and each side should take a couple hours.
 
I was at the bench Tuesday but did not accomplish very much. The 2 cars I am mainly working on turned into 10 roofs only yesterday

IMG_6287.jpeg

Trying to have a light starting to rust effect. The higher raised roof ribs I am told while aluminum, the panels are fastened with steel rivets and will rust. The picture above shows the initial wash applied.

Vallejo light rust thinned with enhanced water. Water with either drops of dish soap added or with Isopropyl Alcohol to break the surface tension. I could not read the label of what the mix was but I have prepared bottles of both. I also brush the enhanced water on before I apply the wash

I will get some more pictures as I thought I took them but cannot find on the IPad! I followed the above wash with Vallejo Panzer Aces dark rust applied to the top edge of the rib with a micro brush but with the brush part removed. You could use a tooth pick but the micro brushes have a firmer handle to grip. That was followed by a wash of Vallejo Air burnt umber 20% paint to 80% enhanced water brushed over raised ribs and let flow

The plan was only to do the 2 Michigan Interstate cars but I have 8 Aurora Miniatures 50’ high cubes already faded that need the roofs dirtied up. The same procedures as above were applied to them.

From here the roofs will be weathered differently

Enjoy your day
 


Going into the wayback machine to pull out some of my earliest weathering efforts, I don’t think I’ve posted these here before. I never thought about posting these when I was doing them, so I don’t have in-progress shots.

This one generally gets the most attention and compliments from people visiting my layout. Yep, it’s a dirt cheap, nearly ubiquitous Bachmann train set car. The rust was done with burnt umber artist oil paint. I came back two days later (the oil still being tacky), and flicked some medium brown pastel chalk dust at it, from a small stiff-bristle brush:
IMG_4070.jpeg


The other side:
IMG_4072.jpeg


When the artist oils dried in a few days, I sealed it with Dullcote from a rattle can. I think what intrigues those who see this one is that the chalk dust stayed put, and really gives this car a visible texture.

If I were to revisit this one, I might airbrush on more rust onto the roof only.

Mud splash layer is a bit on the dark side.

View from the brakewheel end:
IMG_4071.jpeg


Here is the second car I ever weathered, also a Bachmann set car. Weathered the two sides with different base rust colors: burnt umber artist oils on the side with the darker rust, raw umber with the more orange look:
IMG_4079.jpeg


IMG_4076.jpeg


This was my first attempt at weathering a hopper/gondola interior, it probably remains my best. More oil & flick chalk dust here:

IMG_4077.jpeg


Yeah, probably my best, except: the bottom of the gondola is PLANKED. (Yeah, wood, nicely rusted wood.)

A Bangor and Aroostook State of Maine Potatoes car. A subtle but nice mud splash layer (all pastel chalk), went well with the vertical planks, I thought:
IMG_4074.jpeg


My very first weathered car was another BAR/Potatoes car, from the same Empire Builder set as the first two, but this one isn’t it. The original had much more vivid starting colors, which made it much more difficult for me to come to grips with. What it has that I really liked was that the big BAR lettering was black, and the black lettering screams Roaring Twenties, circus barkers and Vaudeville to me in a way these blue letters just can’t. Someday I’m going to strip and re-do the original, or get another one and do it up right.

Alas, how I lament this next car. Yes, it’s a credible rust bucket now, but was once a nicely done piece, until some 99% isopropyl got to it, and I tried to rehabilitate it:

IMG_4080.jpeg


The side that had the most severe attack from the IPA:

IMG_4082.jpeg


Here is what I had achieved before the IPA damage. Artist oils again, but without the chalk flicking this time. What fade there was, came from Boomer Diorama’s technique with Tamiya X-21 and 99% isopropyl.
IMG_2590.jpeg


All of these were done when I didn’t know better, and sprayed on the Dullcote with the trucks still on. Extremely poor rollers, all. Fixable, but I’m more interested in weathering the next thing than rehabilitating the last thing.
 
Last edited:
Going into the wayback machine to pull out some of my earliest weathering efforts, I don’t think I’ve posted these here before. I never rhough about posting these when I was doing them, so I don’t have in-progress shots.

This one generally gets the most attention and compliments from people visiting my layout. Yep, it’s a dirt cheap, nearly ubiquitous Bachmann train set car. The rust was done with burnt umber artist oil paint. I came back two days later (the oil still being tacky), and flicked some medium brown pastel chalk dust at it, from a small stiff-bristle brush
View attachment 193142

The other side:View attachment 193143

When the artist oils dried in a few days, I sealed it with Dullcote from a rattle can. I think what intrigues those who see this one is that the chalk dust stayed put, and really gives this car a visible texture.

If I were to revisit this one, I might airbrush on more rust onto the roof only.

Mud splash layer is a bit on the dark side.

View from the brakewheel end:
View attachment 193144

Here is the second car I ever weathered, also a Bachmann set car. Weathered the two sides with different base rust colors: burnt umber artist oils on the side with the darker rust, raw umber with the more orange look:
View attachment 193145

View attachment 193146

This was my first attempt at weathering a hopper/gondola interior, it probably remains my best. More oil & flick chalk dust here:

View attachment 193147

Yeah, probably my best, except: the bottom of the gondola is PLANKED. (Yeah, wood)

A Bangor and Aroostok State of Maine Potatoes car. A subtle but nice mud splash layer (all pastel chalk), went well with the vertical planks, I thought:
View attachment 193148

My very first weathered car was another BAR/Potatoes car, from the same Empire Builder set as the first two, but this one isn’t it. The original had much more vivid starting colors, which made it much more difficult for me to come to grips with. What it has that I really liked was that the big BAR lettering was black, and the black lettering screams Roaring Twenties, circus barkers and Vaudeville to me in a way these blue letters just can’t. Someday I’m going to strip and re-do the original, or get another one and do it up right.

Alas, how I lament this car. Yes, it’s a credible rust bucket now, but was once a nicely sone piece, until some 99% isopropyl got to it, and I tried to rehabilitate it:

View attachment 193149

The side that had the most severe attack from the IPA:

View attachment 193150

Here us what I had achieved before the IPA damage. Artist oils again, but without the chalk flicking this time. What fade there was, came from Boomer Diorama’s technique with Tamiya X-21 and 99% isopropyl.
View attachment 193151

All of these were done when I didn’t know better, and sprayed on the Dullcote with the trucks still on. Extremely poor rollers, all. Fixable, but I’m more interested in weathering the next thing than rehabilitating the last thing.
The cars look very good but better yet they are believable
 
I really like the sides of the car. As to the roof I think it’s super. I wouldn’t add any more rust to itView attachment 193166View attachment 193167

You know, TomO, I think some of my future weathering path lies in what I did with that car two-and-a-half years ago:

Last October I did a bridge and gave it very nice textured rust by flicking dry pigment via brush bristles at surfaces wetted with water. When I sealed it weeks later with Tamiya clear flat, the texture changed. I’m thinking now of using artist oils again for the rust “underlayer”, and then flicking the pigment onto that surface.

Hmmmm, and I have a spare Kato riveted truss that is a bit out of place for my layout, but would make an excellent test bed.
 
You know, TomO, I think some of my future weathering path lies in what I did with that car two-and-a-half years ago:

Last October I did a bridge and gave it very nice textured rust by flicking dry pigment via brush bristles at surfaces wetted with water. When I sealed it weeks later with Tamiya clear flat, the texture changed. I’m thinking now of using artist oils again for the rust “underlayer”, and then flicking the pigment onto that surface.

Hmmmm, and I have a spare Kato riveted truss that is a bit out of place for my layout, but would make an excellent test bed.
I’ve not done well with pigments sealed by Testors Dull Cote or any other rattle can. I’ve found Tamiya’s clear coat straight not thinned is less aggressive and while dissolving some of the pigments still leaves some.

I feel like experimenting tomorrow with oils and then flicked on rust pigments. I have just the gondola…
 
I feel like experimenting tomorrow with oils and then flicked on rust pigments. I have just the gondola…

Yeah, gondolas get rode hard and put up wet - excellent candidates for a highly textured rust look - especially those mill gondolas discussed a few pages back.

Also, those artist oils, they will hang on to the pastel chalk dust pretty good, as well.

I’n going to do both - test pigments flicked onto oils, and revisit pastel chalks flicked on, with that spare truss.
 
Yeah, gondolas get rode hard and put up wet - excellent candidates for a highly textured rust look - especially those mill gondolas discussed a few pages back.

Also, those artist oils, they will hang on to the pastel chalk dust pretty good, as well.

I’n going to do both - test pigments flicked onto oils, and revisit pastel chalks flicked on, with that spare truss.
Have fun
 
Hello fellow modelers with interests in painting and weathering. This will be my new spot. Instead of starting a new thread for each weathering project, they will be here. Pictures of rolling stock will be here. At this time I do not do locomotives.

I encourage you to give Constructive Criticism and hope you show some of YOUR work with descriptions of what you did, what you used, etc…

I am not showing any of the 51 pulpwood cars I have weathered since October, 2021. I have kept 16. As I have taken on a project for a modeler of 15 pulp wood cars with no loads. You may get sick of seeing pulp cars!

Pictures from recent past projects:
View attachment 141781
a few gondolas
View attachment 141783View attachment 141784View attachment 141782

TomO
Totally AWESOME 😀!!
 


Status
Not open for further replies.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top