Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

[C&OMtnMan]

Well, I finally got to my pin wash on the single-sheathed B&O box cars. I had ideal conditionas for doing this outdoors: 84degrees F and 47% RH.

I wanted outdoors in particular to breathe some fresh air. My minor illness was coronavirus. Caught it from my mom while she was hospitalized on another matter. (Or maybe we both caught it at the hospital.) My sister got it as well. Everyone is recovered.

By way of reminder and direct comparison, here are before photos of the two cars on location where I did the work outdoors, in their Tamiya gloss coat:

The wash was made from Master’s Touch (Hobby Lobby) Lamp Black, thinned about10:1 with mineral spirits, brushed on with a small, flat soft-bristle brush. It went on considerably dark, so I “washed down the wash” with some clear mineral spirits. I went back and forth with more of the wash, dilute & re-wet the excess with mineral spirits, draw off the excess with a Q-tip, rinse and repeat rather literally.

Mineral spirits is (are?) an incredibly forgiving medium to work with (learned through years of woodworking - you have a good long working time, can redissolve what the mineral spirits is the carrier of, so you can fix almost any mistake before it becomes permanent. On the negative side, you can’t really build coats efficiently because things redissolve, and the long working time entails a long drying time.

Here are the after photos, shortly after application:

Those photos only hint at anything being done. Then there is this one back indoors:

I don’t think any photo is going to show what happened until these thing get a clear flat on them.

And due to workload and family considerations, that could be 3-7 weeks away.

 

[TLOC]

Well, I finally got to my pin wash on the single-sheathed B&O box cars. I had ideal conditionas for doing this outdoors: 84degrees F and 47% RH.

I wanted outdoors in particular to breathe some fresh air. My minor illness was coronavirus. Caught it from my mom while she was hospitalized on another matter. (Or maybe we both caught it at the hospital.) My sister got it as well. Everyone is recovered.

By way of reminder and direct comparison, here are before photos of the two cars on location where I did the work outdoors, in their Tamiya gloss coat:

View attachment 198862
View attachment 198863

The wash was made from Master’s Touch (Hobby Lobby) Lamp Black, thinned about10:1 with mineral spirits, brushed on with a small, flat soft-bristle brush. It went on considerably dark, so I “washed down the wash” with some clear mineral spirits. I went back and forth with more of the wash, dilute & re-wet the excess with mineral spirits, draw off the excess with a Q-tip, rinse and repeat rather literally.

Mineral spirits is (are?) an incredibly forgiving medium to work with (learned through years of woodworking - you have a good long working time, can redissolve what the mineral spirits is the carrier of, so you can fix almost any mistake before it becomes permanent. On the negative side, you can’t really build coats efficiently because things redissolve, and the long working time entails a long drying time.

Here are the after photos, shortly after application:
View attachment 198873
View attachment 198874

Those photos only hint at anything being done. Then there is this one back indoors:

View attachment 198877

I don’t think any photo is going to show what happened until these thing get a clear flat on them.

And due to workload and family considerations, that could be 3-7 weeks away.

I guess we will have to wait on the matte finish.

Glad the virus wasn’t worst for you. I’ve still got no strength or stamina since my bout about a month ago

 

[C&OMtnMan]

I guess we will have to wait on the matte finish.

Glad the virus wasn’t worst for you. I’ve still got no strength or stamina since my bout about a month ago

The first time it got me, the aftermath was like that: listless and low energy level for weeks after, generally hit around 1-2:00 in the afternoon.

 

[TLOC]

The first time it got me, the aftermath was like that: listless and low energy level for weeks after, generally hit around 1-2:00 in the afternoon.

Well you nailed that. I can’t move around 1:30 and the 1/2 hour nap that follows has not been refreshing. It has been 5 weeks since I contracted the Covid (pick a number) virus. But I do feel better than week 1!

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Well you nailed that. I can’t move around 1:30 and the 1/2 hour nap that follows has not been refreshing. It has been 5 weeks since I contracted the Covid (pick a number) virus. But I do feel better than week 1!

When the need to nap hits, don’t fight it. Just horizontallize and zonk out.

 

[RC Perspective]

The loads and coloring look great.

The use of the panel liners on gondola sides is very nice. Everything looks believable

I have used the panel liners on diesel locomotives with mixed results. Sometimes it followed the lines I wanted them to and other times they just clumped up

Thanks! I use a super diluted mixture for locomotives, as far as I can tell, it stops the clumping issue. 10:1 X20 (or X20A, I don't recall right offhand) to panel liner. Takes multiple coats to get it to stand out.

I would love to see how you weather the crane. Other than some Hi-wheeler trucks I have no other MOW equipment on the layout.

As to where to place the MOW equipment? I put a notice on 3/1/2024 that I would not be posting anything more to the MOW thread. I have no issues if you want to post MOW equipment here or do another MOW thread

Looking forward to seeing the crane

I'm procrastinating a bit on it, but only because I am determining my plan of attack. I have a Tichy Boom Car, unbuilt, that I may rob some detail parts off of for this crane, and the Bachmann boom/work car will get some of those parts as well.

Anything is possible on the Railroad. If somebody told you those were too crusty someone else would find a prototype photo of that. I like them but I’m a rust bucket lover

I’m not sure how old the gons would be in 1990 but they usually would have been in interchange service for 40 years and after that kept in service for internal work, not for interchange.

So scrap gondolas are fitting by this point!

Your coloring looks great but to be perfectly frank you really need some dents with an authentic scrap load.

My 2 cents

Dave LASM

You aren't wrong. I'll have to drive by the train yard by my job; they have a few damaged gons on a siding in the yard. I'll use some of those for inspiration, add some dents, and some rust streaks to go along with them.

Well, I finally got to my pin wash on the single-sheathed B&O box cars. I had ideal conditionas for doing this outdoors: 84degrees F and 47% RH.

I wanted outdoors in particular to breathe some fresh air. My minor illness was coronavirus. Caught it from my mom while she was hospitalized on another matter. (Or maybe we both caught it at the hospital.) My sister got it as well. Everyone is recovered.

By way of reminder and direct comparison, here are before photos of the two cars on location where I did the work outdoors, in their Tamiya gloss coat:

View attachment 198862
View attachment 198863

The wash was made from Master’s Touch (Hobby Lobby) Lamp Black, thinned about10:1 with mineral spirits, brushed on with a small, flat soft-bristle brush. It went on considerably dark, so I “washed down the wash” with some clear mineral spirits. I went back and forth with more of the wash, dilute & re-wet the excess with mineral spirits, draw off the excess with a Q-tip, rinse and repeat rather literally.

Mineral spirits is (are?) an incredibly forgiving medium to work with (learned through years of woodworking - you have a good long working time, can redissolve what the mineral spirits is the carrier of, so you can fix almost any mistake before it becomes permanent. On the negative side, you can’t really build coats efficiently because things redissolve, and the long working time entails a long drying time.

Here are the after photos, shortly after application:
View attachment 198873
View attachment 198874

Those photos only hint at anything being done. Then there is this one back indoors:

View attachment 198877

I don’t think any photo is going to show what happened until these thing get a clear flat on them.

And due to workload and family considerations, that could be 3-7 weeks away.

Glad to see you on the mend.

Yes the pin wash is hard to see at times, but it's more for the shadow effect than anything here. Looking forward to seeing how that car progresses! That matte coat should really bring it out.

-RC

 

[PaulieT]

An old logging caboose.

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Glad to see you on the mend.

Yes the pin wash is hard to see at times, but it's more for the shadow effect than anything here. Looking forward to seeing how that car progresses! That matte coat should really bring it out.

-RC

Here is a new photo I took, up super-close with the flash. You can see the wash the best on the outside braces; there really is some in the plank lines, too:

It’s still weeks away before I can flat coat these.

 

[RC Perspective]

Here is a new photo I took, up super-close with the flash. You can see the wash the best on the outside braces; there really is some in the plank lines, too:

View attachment 199198

It’s still weeks away before I can flat coat these.

It adds good depth with the planks! It'll really stand out with the matte for sure.

-RC

 

[TLOC]

Sometimes my papermill complex becomes a holding ground for things to weather. This picture is a part of the weathering plan for the next few days

These have the base fade done, all but 1 car are commission projects

 

[santafewillie]

Sometimes my papermill complex becomes a holding ground for things to weather. This picture is a part of the weathering plan for the next few days

These have the base fade done, all but 1 car are commission projects

View attachment 199327

Looks like parts of my layout with half-projects strewn about. Main line is generally always open though.

 

[RC Perspective]

Looks like parts of my layout with half-projects strewn about. Main line is generally always open though.

Are you really model railroading without this, though? Covering my layout with stuff makes me forget that I haven't really started the big stuff yet. Track is laid and trains are running, but not much else has been started, LOL.

Working on 3 projects at the same time, as usual.

I've decided I'll leave the Tichy stuff for the die-hard builders. I had fun building the #4022 Boom Car kit; all 5 hours of it. However, I'd like to spend more time painting, weathering, and running trains, so unless I buy some already built, think I'll pass on those kits. Not a complaint in the least; the kits and builds are phenominal. I'll post pics of that soon, after painting and starting to weather.

Onto what I came to post.

Tamiya panel liner - Brown. A demonstration.
Bachmann USAF Missile Depressed Flat Car - I'm in the process of converting this to a slightly more prototypical, albeit loosely, depressed flat car. It's a nice runner, and I wanted more realistic than the missile load (I converted the trailer and missile to an actual trailer to use with a Conrail Truck). I'll be 3d printing a large transformer load, covering the sides like the protoype photo, and adding the newer brake wheel stand and brake parts to the deck, and add stirrups.

Photo credit - Joe Jack and CRHS. 1979

So, this is the plastic wood deck, in the middle is untouched, on the left is one coat of panel liner, straight from the bottle, with the brush. On the right is two coats.

Single coat

Two coats

Light is oversaturated; it's darker in person, and looks way more like real wood, with 2-3 coats of the brown panel liner.

As an added bonus, here are pictures of a Bachmann Santa Fe maintenance car I patched out to Conrail and weathered. Currently working on this car again, cleaning up old glue, swapping the plastic pile of ties for real wood ties, and the plastic rails for some real rails, along with adding some small stuff to fill it in. I use this car as the Boom Car. The Tichy boom car is too small for the 250 ton crane, so I'll most likely turn it into a work car to go with the MOW/Wreck train.

Lots of panel liner, brown and black, and Tamiya weathering powder, soot and rust. Bogies were done with only rust and orange rust weathering powder. The red lenses were done with Red 3d puffy paint.

Also have these two waiting to be weathered. The covered hopper is for a personal friend, and will have my third, from scratch graffiti done on it.

And some additional weathering inspiration for you all.

Photo credit - Grant Lowry and CRHS

-RC

 

[TLOC]

Looks like parts of my layout with half-projects strewn about. Main line is generally always open though.

Sometimes I runout of room on the 24’ of drying shelves. I have been trying to get a bit ahead of schedule as I have doctor appointments coming up. I had been working on personal projects (put aside incomplete) and finishing up a 10 unit run of Sd70aces for a soon to be surprised client. His wife normally in November asks me to do something for his birthday which is sometimes the day after Thanksgiving. This time she actually contacted me in August asking for help for what he wanted. She found out that he wanted to upgrade his fleet so I found 10 sd70aces at a super price and then started weathering them. 5 had sound from the shop and 5 I added just a decoder no sound. They will be final inspected and tested tonight tonight. The daughter will ship them out Monday while am doctoring. She said he will be surprised as this will be an anniversary gift and they generally don’t do that. I’m still in shock she actually gave me decent time to work on these. Since I usually work on 1 or 2 diesels a week this messed up my schedule so in August I adjusted it to 4 and then the medical crap kicked me hard. So everything backed up and because of the diesels I needed space for cars to dry that while not 100% dust proof this Papermill location works out. I do have a plastic drop cloth that I cover this area with when I have models drying here. It works out well. Needless to say, no running of trains on the paper mill lead

 

[TLOC]

Good morning. I have been around and working slowly on some weathering projects both personal (put aside now incomplete) and commission work. But not posting! Except for 1 diesel and 11 cars for the that same modeler I have all my other October commissions completed.

Not feeling good and worried about health issues suck. It reminds me of my mortality and I never used to worry about that. But while not 100% and being unable to golf I should have had more time for running trains and weathering. I take pride in my weathering and since the concentration levels varied I only weathered in the good times. Model railroading is supposed to be fun, if it’s not than don’t do it! I dislike having to do things over so if I was unsure at the bench I walked away. As for running trains, if I have 2 hours total on my layout the last 30 days, that’s a lot! But that is behind me I am forward thinking. I have another full physical (2nd opinion thing) slated for 9/22 and more tests on 9/23 and maybe answers on the 24th before we come back home that night.

Here are 10 past completed projects

 

[TLOC]

Santafewillie calls these shots from the archives

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Dang, TomO,

After all that rust, I almost feel like I need a tetanus shot! Great work there.

Sorry to hear about the health concerns. Hope things resolve well in that regard.

 

[Smudge617]

Ditto here about your health.

As for your varied projects, it's always good to see masterworks of art

 

[TLOC]

Thanks for the nice comments. The doctors and technicians have to do the work, I’ll just let them. I should be back at my bench 9/25, meanwhile more from the archives

See I can do lighter!!!

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Finally a chance to dullcote my old B&O boxcars, and then some.

I got today off from a crushing workload, and the weather was great for it: 93 degrees and 38% relative humidity. Sunny. Calm air.

And the dullcote went on:

I was really rather satisfied with these as-is, but I made the command decision to try to bring the color closer to the aged look of the B&O and C&O reds I posted a page or two ago. Toward that end, this isn’t a complete formula, but I took what I had left of my boxcar red, added three drops of Vallejo air red four drops of Valejo white, then enough Vallejo airbrush thinner to thin it out about 4:1. Here is a picture of the mix in the airbrush cup:

It’s a bit more rose-colored than that photo shows.

And here is the product thus far, with dullcote over the fade as well:

The humidity came up from 38 to 40%, and some clouds rolled in, making it difficult to have consistent, comparative lighting for the photos, but the light spraying met the goals I had:

1. Made the final colors a bit more red,
2. Evinces fading of the lettering
3. Didn’t obscure the black pin wash.

I also, earlier, undertook something I hadn’t before: painting the undersides. I dullcoted them today , as well:

And then the 40% humidity became a downpour just after I got the cars indoors. It was quite the hustle to get the airbrush, compressor and other things inside.

Here are the colors used to make the fade out of my boxcar red:

I do plan to further the car by doing some lettering paint fade/running, and some light pastel chalk work. And some mud spash.

 

[RC Perspective]

Good morning. I have been around and working slowly on some weathering projects both personal (put aside now incomplete) and commission work. But not posting! Except for 1 diesel and 11 cars for the that same modeler I have all my other October commissions completed.

Not feeling good and worried about health issues suck. It reminds me of my mortality and I never used to worry about that. But while not 100% and being unable to golf I should have had more time for running trains and weathering. I take pride in my weathering and since the concentration levels varied I only weathered in the good times. Model railroading is supposed to be fun, if it’s not than don’t do it! I dislike having to do things over so if I was unsure at the bench I walked away. As for running trains, if I have 2 hours total on my layout the last 30 days, that’s a lot! But that is behind me I am forward thinking. I have another full physical (2nd opinion thing) slated for 9/22 and more tests on 9/23 and maybe answers on the 24th before we come back home that night.

Here are 10 past completed projects

A good reminder; Today would be a good day to clean the rails, and run some trains. Here's hoping good news for your health!

Santafewillie calls these shots from the archives

View attachment 199641

Man, love this coil car, and not just because it's Conrail either! Always love your work.

Finally a chance to dullcote my old B&O boxcars, and then some.

I got today off from a crushing workload, and the weather was great for it: 93 degrees and 38% relative humidity. Sunny. Calm air.

And the dullcote went on:

I was really rather satisfied with these as-is, but I made tge command decision to try to bring to color closer to the aged look of the B&O and C&O reds I posted a page or two ago. Toward that end, this isn’t a complete formula, but I took what I had left of my boxcar red, added three drops of Vallejo air red four drops of Valejo white, then enough Vallejo airbrush thinner to thin it out about 4:1. Here is a picture of the mix in the airbrush cup:

It’s a big more rose-colored than that photo shows.

And here is the product thus far, with dullcote over the fade as well:

The humidity came up from 38 to 40%, and some clouds rolled in, making it difficult to gave consistent, comparative lighting for the photos, but the light spraying met the goals I had:

1. Made the final colors a bit more red,
2. Evinces fading of the lettering
3. Didn’t obscure the black pin wash.

I also, earlier, undertook something I hadn’t before: painting the undersides. I dullcoted them today , as well:

And then the 40% humidity became a downpour just after I got the cars indoors. It was quite the hustle to get the airbrush, compressor and other things inside.

Here are the colors used to make the fade out of my boxcar red:

I do plan to further the car by doing some lettering paint fade/running, and some light pastel chalk work. And some mud spash.

Glad to see you got around to this! Looking good!

-RC