How do YOU weather a ........................?

[3rdrail]

Since some contests seemed to devolve into pissing contests, along with lectures about suitability of models (yours has 47 rivets while the prototype had 49) and this particular topic has become somewhat moribund since the contests' demise, I am going to propose something else.

Each month, or whatever period seems to best suit, we'll have a "how do YOU weather" a particular car type or locomotive type, like "boxcar", "gondola", "reefer", "road switcher" "cab unit", etc. Each participant will post a photo or photos and describe the prototype if any and how the weathering was done. Constructive comments will be permitted and questions are welcome, but "you used the wrong car, the prototype was a foot longer" type of comment will be deleted. No contests, no voting, so Tom Mann and Rich Yourstone won't blow your model out of the water. All scales will be welcome.

Let's share what we've done and how we've done it and maybe regain some of the momentum this topic had some time back. What say y'all??

I've taken some photos this afternoon to start things off if you're interested.

[tom mann]

Post your photos, Gregg!

[3rdrail]

Tom, I knew you'd be interested. How about any others? There's supposed to be at least a couple of dozen folks on here that weather at least some of their cars.  Are they willing to share their work?

EDIT: OK, here's a teaser:

LNE 8235 represents a fairly recently shopped car that has a little road grime and some fresh rust where a spill hit it. Done with A.I.M. powders. Bought this at WGH last month and weathered it last week.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like it!

Here's one from me, I've posted these a long time ago, but it's worth another run, since black cars are hard to do, and I think these turned out well:




These are two LBF gons that I had gotten a while ago from Rockingham Junction.

The weathering was done with washes of cheap craft paints (Apple Barrel Colors, I believe) thinned with Vodka (thats where the "Ed's a drunk" rumors come from, I swear).

I usually weather in batches. I mix up a bunch of washes, then start on one car with one color. The vodka dries quickly enough that after I've done a few more cars, the first one is dry enough to have another layer of another color added. I usually use a few rust shades (usually a dark brown, a lighter brown and a reddish brown), flat black and a grimy black color.

I usually start with flat black, however in these I skipped right to building up light washes of the gray and the rust colors until I got this finish.

It lacks the big rust patches and streaks, but I think it looks airbrushed, even though I just used regular old bristle brushes.

[John]

I did this one in 2004 .. its an old Life Like X72 .. repainted with boxcar red, new decals, and just some dullcote, red and black chalk .. kind of looks like crap .. but ..

[nscalesteve]

I did this one in 2006 (or was it already back in 2005 ?)  ???



I just used chalk in different colors - nowadays I would start with washes and then with chalk...

[tom mann]

Here is an look at my latest, but unfinished work:



I'm working on techniques to make weathering black a little more, well...less difficult.  The key is a nice dark neutral gray color as a base, with layers over top of it.

[MrKLUKE]

.

[wm3798]

Okay, I just moved this over from what was the contest page...
My entry...


This car has a lot of miles on it. Modifications include lowering the ride height (Thinking of you, Tom...), Lo-Profile wheels, the dents and dings were added with the aid of a soldering iron, and the weathering and rust is applied with acrylic paints. The load is commercially available and represents bailed scrap aluminum.

I think I need to make the rust a little more intense, and add some to the top sill.  Looks a little to clean for as beat up as it is.


Compare the ride height of the more or less stock WM hopper on the left with the modified hopper on the right. To get the car down to a prototypical ride height, I filed down the bolsters, and cut the floor out of the plastic shell completely. I'll be adding some v-groove styrene to add a detailed floor. Overall the height is reduced by about 1/8".

Lee

[nscalesteve]

Okay, I just moved this over from what was the contest page...

wait, wait, wait, what do you mean with "what was" the contest page... ?
the weathering challenge is still running and WILL BE RUNNING IN FUTURE as well !!

[wm3798]

Hey, I only work here.  You management types have to get together on this...

Wally

[Chris333]

I could probably come up with something for the future, just need to remember to have the camera sitting there while I weather.

[tom mann]

I could probably come up with something for the future, just need to remember to have the camera sitting there while I weather.

I find that forcing myself to take a break to take some photos is actually beneficial.

[3rdrail]

This was definitely intended to be in addition to any contests - for those modelers that felt they had no chance in the contests and those that just wanted to share their work. Let's face it. we're lucky to get three entries in a contest lately, so we really appreciate Steve W. volunteering to conduct them. 

But, this post was not intended to start a picture posting thread, merely to gauge interest. As I said, we would all post photos of the same general type of car or locomotive, describing the methods used, and hopefully learn from each other.

I'll start one this afternoon.