Although it's common practice to paint steam engines flat black (whatever actual color of gray you choose), I get what I think is a more prototypical look by spraying my steam engines with glossy Scalecoat II for the glossy black prototype engines were painted with, and hitting the firebox, smokebox and smokebox front with whatever graphite, lettering gray or silver is appropriate for the road I'm painting for (SP and UP steam have different formulas for these areas), and then finishing off the engine with whatever other colors, striping and lettering to get it looking like it just came out of the shop with brand new paint.
Then, I start weathering with my flat colors...Grimy Black, Weathered Black, Reefer White, Flat Roof Brown, sometimes feathering with the airbrush, sometimes streaking the freshly applied flat colors with a coarse brush loaded with alcohol, and sometimes spattering with either or both a coarse brush, or using a low-air-pressure setting on my airbrush...to spatter muddy or oily areas down low on the pilot, on the underside of the smokebox door...
Then I hit the top of the engine with flat black to represent soot...feathering the spray so it's more concentrated near the stack...and around the top of the stack and inside it...with the soot getting lighter and broader towards the rear of the engine and tender.
Then I do the water mineralization where there's lots of steam and drippage, particularly on the rear drivers on U.P. engines and streaking downward from the steam dome.
Lastly, I do the top and sides streaking on the tender, along with the markings that puddling water and oil make on top using paint and alcohol applied with a brush or Q-tip. Applying a puddle of alcohol on top several times and letting it evaporate gives pretty realistic looking dried-up puddled water markings on the deck where the water towers are, adding the streaking coming down the sides of the tender separately.
Although most of the glossy black gets covered up, there are areas where it shows through...just like on the prototype engines, no matter how dirty they are...and the weathering and streaking with the non-black flat weathering paints really pops out the details.
Also, the soot on top of the engine really pops because of the stark contrast between the soot's "flatness" and the boiler's glossiness. There's not much difference in color if any...it's solely the texture.
Although when I write it down, it seems complicated, it actually goes very quickly. Also, looking at prototype color photos or videos of the prototype engine you're weathering makes a huge difference in the realism of your weathering. I particularly like videos, as most of the time, you perceive glossiness from the highlights coming off the paint and their motion as they move across the flat and curved surfaces on your steam engine's surface as the engine moves in the video. It's much less obvious in still photos, making the engines look as if their paint is completely flat.
Here's a photo that I may have posted before of a USRA Light MacArthur that's been U.P.-ized with the big "Sweeney" stack and other details...but was painted glossy black first, then weathered according to what I've written here. It doesn't look glossy unless you look closely at the rounded surfaces, but you can see the glossy areas if you look closely...and you can also see that the weathering is covering a glossy surface, just like the prototype...and no detailing is hidden. Also photographs extremely well...
Photo (1) - U.P. USRA Light MacArthur (Mikado) doing its Park City Local job, sitting on the Park City Branch Yard lead at Echo:
Another Example. Here's an Overland Big Boy tender painted with Scalecoat II Engine Black (glossy) & lettered before any weathering...
Photo (2) - U.P. Big Boy Centipede Tender Gloss Black before weathering:
Photo (3) - U.P. Big Boy Centipede Tender Gloss Black after weathering:
Big Boys were very well maintained, so their glossy paint would always shine through, even when they were extremely dirty. However, steam engines much less prestigious than Big Boys could also be seen to be shiny under their weathering such as this photo of an S.P. Consolidation switching the Ogden Yard...
Photo (4) - S.P. Consolidation w whaleback tender switching the Ogden Yard. Notice the shiny paint still visible under all the grime and soot, but the tops of the domes are totally soot-covered:
This is what I've found works satisfactorily for me, and I thought I'd throw it out there because it's not the usual way of painting and weathering model railroad steam power...but, I think it looks more real than more usual methods.
Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore
