Best Of Fading fast...

[up1950s]

You should send this to N Scale Mag . Your results are outstanding . The yellowing of the otherwise stark white lettering is so realistic and the tankcars came out great , so that means so would steamers , bridges , hoppers , etc . Terrific !

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  You're right that I'm going for the run-of-the mill stuff that is the staple of modern RRing, so I'm glad it comes across that way.  My goal is that for most cars you should have to look twice (but not three times) to tell if it's been weathered at all, but that it should be obvious when seen next to an unweathered car.

I think the yellowing of the BN lettering has come mostly from the raw sienna in the wash and less from the yellow-tinted fade coat.  I'm really surprised how little these transparent oxides affect white colors.  They seem to have more of an affect on canceling the complementary color in the base paint...  I'm going to have to read up on that though.  FWIW, I tried a quick test this afternoon of using the orange-tinted fade on a scrap blue container I had and the result was very encouraging.  Can't wait to try it on the Golden West box. 

Richie - give this brew a try on a steamer and post some results!  And here's a deal: I'll write write up an article if you write one up on your LIRR train. 

Cheers,
Gary

P.S. Rowan - post #1, welcome to Railwire!

[GaryHinshaw]

Ok - time to post the Golden West fade test.  Results are mixed, but mostly positive.  I started out with an Atlas FGE car from my latest Chuck-pak.  Here's a proto-photo for reference:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=28905

and the model out of the box:



I applied a few simple upgrades first: painted the roof blue as per the proto photos I could find, BLMA coupler platforms, MT/1037 trucks (with coupler box painted blue...) and FVM wheels.

Now, I believe the transparent oxide paints act according to subtractive color theory which means for example, that a transparent yellow layer would preferentially absorb or filter out blue, and so forth.  Here is a nice brief reference on the topic:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/filter.html#c1

So I started out with the yellow tinted brew noted previously and applied several coats.  I wasn't completely satisfied with the results (not enough fade) so I switched to an orange tinted brew and applied several more coats (all applied very lightly).  Here is the result:



Note that the blue is quite faded, the red less so, and the yellow hardly at all - just what I wanted!  I have a sense that if I tried to go much farther with this one that it would start to look like an over-spray (I haven't tried it), but I think it works well to this extent.

I finished it off with some grime washes and Bragdon powders:





I think I overdid the grime a bit and will probably do the next one as more of a pure fade with very light grime.  Curiously, the prototype boxes have almost no rust.  This blue must be an excellent rust inhibitor while having lousy UV tolerance.

Ok, one more.  I really like the Evans double-plug cars:  CHTT prototype

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=225330

Atlas model:



This was mostly a test of paint-outs.  After a few coats of white/flat to seal the graf decals, I masked the paint-outs and proceeded to fully fade the remainder.  Now I'm running out of decent graffiti decals...

Thanks for looking - comments always welcome,
Gary

P.S. Now I'm getting up the nerve to tackle my GT auto-rack...  ;D

[wcfn100]

It's a very nice effect but the car ends up a bit washed out.  Maybe it's the lighting, but I think you could get the seams and rivets to stand out a little more.

Just a thought, looks great.


Jason

[GaryHinshaw]

Yea, I think the grime wash went a bit too far on this car.  Next time I'll just try a very dilute raw umber to get a little definition on the seams but hopefully not obscure the pale blue too much (I am pretty happy with the initial fade though).  I'll keep this one in service - just not one of my favorites.

-gfh

[James Costello]

Wow....nice work Gary - I'm going to have to look into this technique when my exams are over!

[Caleb Austin]

Really cool stuff Gary. Fading is still one of those things I haven't gotten the hang of yet so this is really usefull.

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks guys.  If I may, what are you studying James?  Good luck with the exams!
-gfh

[James Costello]

Thanks guys.  If I may, what are you studying James?  Good luck with the exams!
-gfh

Thanks mate! I'm doing my Masters (Pavement Engineering) part time and working full time. This is my last engineering subject (insitu stabilisation) with only two business subjects and a thesis to go  :

Exam is on the 11/4 and I can't wait to get the work bench back up and running (just moved) and restart my SD70M Demonstrator projects 

[clarkrw3]

Looks great!!  I have gotten a bunch of supplies to try it for myself.  Great work and thanks for all the helpful tips.

Also door scraps like in the proto would look great on that FGE.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Ok... i tried this and have got nothing but failure to show for it. I get patchy and gainular appearance... not the smooth finish you have. at first I thought it was the paint being to thick, but when thinned it will settle between ribs and ruins the effect... any suggestions?

[tom mann]

Ok... i tried this and have got nothing but failure to show for it. I get patchy and gainular appearance... not the smooth finish you have. at first I thought it was the paint being to thick, but when thinned it will settle between ribs and ruins the effect... any suggestions?

Thin around 40-50%

[GaryHinshaw]

Daniel, Sorry to hear about your travails - hope I didn't cause you to ruin anything of genuine value.   :-\  As Tom notes, the mix should be quite thin.  Here's a quick overview of my recipe, which is very approximate:

50% Microscale Flat, 40% WW fluid as thinner, 10% zinc-based white (a "dollop").  I have also taken to adding half a dollop of transparent yellow, orange or red to the mix to keep the colors a bit warmer, but this is to taste.  (A few more tinted examples are almost ready to post.)

I'm applying it at low pressure (16-18 psi) and low flow with a Badger 150 and the widest needle.  I pull back just enough that I can see the spray but not more.  Each coat is almost imperceptible, but after several passes you'll notice the effect.  I could probably be more aggressive with individual passes to speed things up, but that probably requires more care than I can muster.  If this sound like what you're doing already, post or pm me a photo and I'd be happy to take a look. 

Cheers,
Gary

P.S. James - it must now be after 11/4 Down Under.  Hope the exams went well and that you can now get back to some real (i.e. train) work! 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I got some progress today. I ended up killing an LBF car, but nothing I was attached to. I was using the matte medium instead of acrylic flat. I'll change the formula tomorrow. I had to run the thing at 50 PSI to get the even coat. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong

[jbaakko]

Wow, I like this thread!  I'm going to the store now, to buy me some white...  I was just thinking of trying something like this with Gouache, think it'll work as well?  Gouache is a n oil type paint that can be thinned with water, and it works better for rust streaking, then plain water acrylics...