Hopper weathering

[Iain]

Give me opinions and suggestions, please.

[CoalPorter]

Nice job Iian, looks real good.   
Can you discribe how you did it?
I made the mistake of using one solid rust color. Although this provides some contrast, it's far from realistic. Kind of like when MT tried to paint a flat car deck to look like real wood.

[Iain]

I mixed some real rust powder and a tiny amount of Tamiya Flat Earth Brown in some unsoftened well water.  I then put this mixture into the hoppers and let the water evaporate off.  I sealed it with some dullcoat.  To finish up I drybrushed on various colours, grimy black and flat black for the coke hopper, light ghost grey and D&H grey for the NS potash hopper.

[CoalPorter]

 ;D "unsoftened well water" ;D

Maybe you have hit on a new product idea!!

"Iian's unsoftened well water for freight car modelers."   $10.95 per bottle.

[MrKLUKE]

.

[Iain]

;D "unsoftened well water" ;D

Maybe you have hit on a new product idea!!

"Iian's unsoftened well water for freight car modelers."   $10.95 per bottle.

Well, I notice all the rust on the side of the house from the sprinkler.

[CoalPorter]

Quote: "Well, I notice all the rust on the side of the house from the sprinkler."

 ??? ??? ???
Your house has steel sides?
You get more interesting all the time.

[Iain]

No steel sides.
However, the water itself is full of iron.

[Raildog]

I think yours look a little too dirty. Proto hoppers remain relatively clean well into their service life. Even a commodity as dirty as coal will scour the inside of the car and leave a shiny surface for new rust to collect. This gets removed as soon as a new load is released.

Thanks to Joe Shaw for a few of these photos.

Jerry Jackson

[bsoplinger]

Absolutely off topic, but I see the reporting mark on that one picture as PPLX. Are these hoppers owned by Pennsylvania Power and Light Company? I ask because Con-Cor did a special run of older style 3 bay with pictures of Reddi Kilowatt on them for PPL and I got a few of those of the 'bay and now I see there are newer ones possibly, although I'm sure without the nice logos and graphics.  :'(

Tis a shame how boring cars have become nowadays.

[Raildog]

PPLX

Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. 

added 10/1964; 7/1965-7/2005

[Iain]

The NS hopper (gray) caried potash, which has a consistency close to flour.  Not much scouring going on here, and it sticks to everything with the slightest bit of moisture.  Muggy eastern NC provides that and the rust.

Thanks for the info, though.

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[Mile 1]

The NS hopper (gray) caried potash, which has a consistency close to flour.  Not much scouring going on here, and it sticks to everything with the slightest bit of moisture.  Muggy eastern NC provides that and the rust.

Thanks for the info, though.

That is truly unique, as muriate of potash is not only susceptible to the elements but becomes quite caustic when it reacts with water, eating away paint and causing horrific rust blisters even on new cars.  For this reason, it is usually transported in covered hoppers- at least here in Canada anyway.

Regardless of commodity, I think your hopper looks great.

[Iain]

Well, this was back in the glory days of the NS forty+ years ago.
They still do it today; the reporting marks are the same, basically the same short car painted close to the same colour (before the gray dip jobs, the NS hoppers were redish brown), but the railroad is different.