Weathering hoppers

[svedblen]

Today I weathered one of the trucks of one of my hoppers. I more or less followed the advice of Jeremy St. Peter at the Weathering Shop (http://www.theweatheringshop.com/jtrucks.html).

I wanted to paint and weather the wheels as well. The only way to get at the wheel sides is to disassemble the complete truck. So that is what I did. In the picture below you can see all the parts. Before proceeding I took the opportunity to wash the parts in alcohol. I also masked the wheel threads and stuck the bearing caps to the ends of some tooth picks for easier handling.



I spray painted the wheels with Tamiya red brown, followed by a dusting of AIM light rust weathering powder.

The truck parts were sprayed with Vallejo black surface primer. The truck was then reassembled. The painted and weathered wheels were also fitted again. I then hit some parts of the truck, such as the visible part of the bolster and the springs, with some acrylic raw umber. Last the trucks were dusted with AIM dark rust, medium earth and medium gray powder. The dark rust was applied around the same areas that got the sienna, the medium earth mainly along the lower part of the truck, and the medium gray all over the truck.

The picture below shows the finished truck to the right, and for comparison an original Atlas truck (with P48 profile) wheels to the left.



Since this small project turned out OK nothing stops me from doing the additional trucks for this car and the others. 

... and this is O scale, if you had not figured that out already. 

[CBQ Fan]

Looks really good!

[DKS]

The weathering looks excellent. The only thing that spoils it is the flat wheel backs, which is nothing against Lennart.

[svedblen]

Thanks guys! 

The only thing that spoils it is the flat wheel backs, which is nothing against Lennart.

Yes, and it shows even more when there is no car on top to hide the view. I have not seen any good pictures of wheel backs, so I do not really know what they would look like. There are pictures of wheels in storage, like this one:



But I doubt that kind of uneven rusting is typical for a car in use and wheels that keep rotating. Any hints appreciated.

[Lemosteam]

You could fake the dished back by painting it to look dished, but that would very be time consuming.

[svedblen]

OK, now I understand. I thought DKS meant the flat color. But he of course meant the flat instead of dished back. Agree, that would be tough to simulate.

I'll simply put the truck back under the car and hope that not very much of the wheel back will be visible. 

[wazzou]

Should all be in shadow.

[central.vermont]

Should all be in shadow.

Unless they are under a tank car or some of the covered hoppers.   
 
But seriously Lennart those look great!! One thing that you could also do and would be very noticeable in "O" is to have the car numbers decaled onto the side frames. I have seen this on a lot of cars. They do this to help identify what truck belongs to what car after a derailment.   
Tried to Google the web for some pics but came up empty.   

Jon

[Santa Fe Guy]

Today I weathered one of the trucks of one of my hoppers. I more or less followed the advice of Jeremy St. Peter at the Weathering Shop (http://www.theweatheringshop.com/jtrucks.html).

I wanted to paint and weather the wheels as well. The only way to get at the wheel sides is to disassemble the complete truck. So that is what I did. In the picture below you can see all the parts. Before proceeding I took the opportunity to wash the parts in alcohol. I also masked the wheel threads and stuck the bearing caps to the ends of some tooth picks for easier handling.



I spray painted the wheels with Tamiya red brown, followed by a dusting of AIM light rust weathering powder.

The truck parts were sprayed with Vallejo black surface primer. The truck was then reassembled. The painted and weathered wheels were also fitted again. I then hit some parts of the truck, such as the visible part of the bolster and the springs, with some acrylic raw umber. Last the trucks were dusted with AIM dark rust, medium earth and medium gray powder. The dark rust was applied around the same areas that got the sienna, the medium earth mainly along the lower part of the truck, and the medium gray all over the truck.

The picture below shows the finished truck to the right, and for comparison an original Atlas truck (with P48 profile) wheels to the left.



Since this small project turned out OK nothing stops me from doing the additional trucks for this car and the others. 

... and this is O scale, if you had not figured that out already. 

Very nice work. Lennart. I have been a fan of Tamiya Red Brown for years and have used it on all my plastic and metal N Scale wheels along with the couplers in the past. I will definately use it again when I do the wheels on my new layout in HOn3.

[peteski]

The weathering is very well done and the colors look very realistic.
I understand that it is not your fault, but I'm surprised that the 0 scale wheels do not have properly modeled wheel backs.

[GaryHinshaw]

On the other hand, the tread width and flange depth are killer.

[peteski]

On the other hand, the tread width and flange depth are killer.

Yup, there is  no denying it. That is why it is surprising that with everything else modeled so realistically they neglected to take care of the wheel backs. The wheels look like they are molded separately from the axle in a 2-part mold. The mold could just as easily have been designed to properly model the back profile.

[Missaberoad]

Yup, there is  no denying it. That is why it is surprising that with everything else modeled so realistically they neglected to take care of the wheel backs. The wheels look like they are molded separately from the axle in a 2-part mold. The mold could just as easily have been designed to properly model the back profile.

The wheels are likely machined not cast, and wouldn't be notisable under a car except from the end of a uncoupled car...

[svedblen]

Thanks for all the kind words!

Should all be in shadow.

The wheels are likely machined not cast, and wouldn't be notisable under a car except from the end of a uncoupled car...

True, as this photo with the truck in place shows. Not much of the wheel back that is visible.

Unless they are under a tank car or some of the covered hoppers.   

Ok, from this very special angle you can actually see the back of the wheel. 

I understand that it is not your fault, but I'm surprised that the 0 scale wheels do not have properly modeled wheel backs.

For the standard clunky O scale wheels it is not surprising at all. But now when I have been made aware of it I am actually a little surprised my self when it comes to fine scale (P48) wheels. So the back of the wheels do nearly never show, but should that really stop a dedicated modeler?   

I have been a fan of Tamiya Red Brown for years and have used it on all my plastic and metal N Scale wheels along with the couplers in the past. I will definately use it again when I do the wheels on my new layout in HOn3.

That will look great! But remember that what you see in the picture above is the Red Brown combined with Light Rust powder. I really think you should try to add some of the latter as well.

[svedblen]

The wheels look like they are molded separately from the axle in a 2-part mold. The mold could just as easily have been designed to properly model the back profile.

The wheels are likely machined not cast, ...

The wheels are machined, not cast. And the axle is a separate piece (Actually there are one plastic bushing for each wheel as well, for a total of 5 parts per wheel set). I cannot tell if the fact that the wheels are machined would make it easier or harder to add the back profile. Not saying that it would be worth the effort.

On the other hand, if I had the choice between wheels with or without the back profile, why would I not pick the former for, let's say, a show case car?