Another curiosity question. Weathering Your Equipment.

[CBQ Fan]

Once I start and finish my scenery I will figure that out. With the size of my layout combined with it just being me I don’t see me having to cross that bridge anytime soon.

[6axlepwr]

I need to first preface this post by saying I am indeed NO expert on art of weathering a model. Not even close. I can do it, but the majority of my results are not from planning. Mostly just very happy mistakes. I am not here to put any efforts down either. my post is purely my own opinion so please do not take what I have written here the wrong way.

I am not overly impressed with what I saw in the link at the bottom of the first page to REALISTIC WEATHERING FOR N-SCALE MODEL RAILROADERS - GETTING GRUNGED. The close up photos did not do the work justice either. I could easily pick out the brush strokes and the paint build up was rather heavy looking. The further back photos showed much better. I have the same opinion with what used to be the weathering shop. Photos looked pretty darn good, but see the model for real and it was rather unimpressive. You could see the heavy layering of paint and lots of brush strokes.

If it were not for me wanting to build a layout, I would not be weathering anything. I 100% agree with the person who posted that mentioned he liked the factory fresh look. I do too. It is how I modeled my HO stuff which you can see all of it on my Flickr page. The wheels got weathered and that is it. I even started leaving the uncoupling trip pins on and stopped weathering the couplers (it was inhibiting their operation). I was never going to have an HO layout so I stopped weathering my cars and just finished them with a satin varnish. I loved their look and simply continued in that manner.

As mentioned, because of the layout. I feel the need to weather my equipment. I am staying with the older stuff too. Not buying the newer higher fidelity models. Same as I did in HO. I stopped buying all the new stuff, sold off what I had and stayed with the older models and enjoyed the hell out of it. It is what I am doing with N-Scale. In fact, I did an impulse buy of three MT PS-2 two bay hoppers and when I got them, they are just way to nice of a model for what I want and what I want out of my models. So I will be getting rid of them in favor of the Atlas model. So if anyone wants to trade three MT hoppers for say four Atlas hoppers, send me a PM.

Weathering is an art and not everyone can handle it. As was mentioned in a post on this thread. Train shows are filled with weathering attempts. I am happy that I can look past those attempts because I will buy the cars cheap and strip them for a repaint. I just need to make sure the cars are not busted up. I digress. The best weathering is when you cannot see the brush strokes or paint build up. When I weather stuff, I heavily dilute the medium I am using in order to thin it way down to reduce heavy build up.

This is a great conversation and I appreciate the participation in it. I truly enjoy reading every ones response and I respect them all. What is really great is nobody is telling anyone how it should be done. Sweet!

Brian

[CRL]

We used to have "weathering challenges" here -- those seem to have died off .. while I appreciate the effort of those who do it well, I've kind of settled for plausible mediocrity - since don't have the talent to do those master pieces.  My last attempt in one of the challenges resulted in one comment that totally turned me off to sharing any work here - IIRC it was something about the model being covered in sludge .. I admit it wasn't great, but I was happy with it at the time

Personally, I prefer taking a fairly simple approach to weathering. I use a dull brown color and dry-brush the wheels, trucks and any raised ironwork on the model. This is followed by random applications of various weathering pastel chalks. I use whatever color looks appropriate on the car. If the chalk doesn’t want to stick to a glossy finish, I’ll hit it with dull coat and try again. I don’t try to do fine detail weathering. I’m just going for a good general effect as the train is rolling by when viewed from 2-3ft distance. I just want the cars to look dirty…. In varying degrees. Some cars get a lot, others not as much. Sometimes I’ll “scrub” the chalk into the surface. Uniformly random chaos if you will.

[peteski]

Brian,
Just  because you are building a layout, nobody's forcing you to weather your rolling stock.  Devote your time to building the layout and once you have or where it's presentable, run un-weathered cars and see how you like it.  You can always always dirty them up later (when you spend less time on layout construction).  Problem with weathered cars is (well, depending on how well they are weathered), they might be harder to sell off if you decide you don't want them (changing layout eras, etc.). What might look pretty good to you might not appeal to someone interested in buying the cars.

I have seen many layouts where cars aren't weathered (other than natural dust settled on them).  The layout owner is happy with those.

Another alternative would be to use removable weathering  methods, so you could remove the weathering at will. Actually, that is a great way to get good at weathering, since you you don't like the result, you can wash it off, then make another and another attempt.

[6axlepwr]

Peteski,

That is a VERY good point that I forgot to add to my post. Selling stuff. Lots of people do not like someone else's rendition of weathering. Weathering is a personal thing and exactly as you mention. It may look good to you, but not to others.

Great point also about the cars can always be weathered later. Focus on the layout and get it running reliably. Run trains and then in the leisure time start weathering the cars. Love it. It is what my good friends always told me in HO. I can always go back and weather the cars if I wanted to. I am definitely going to adopt that with N-Scale as well.

Brian

[ednadolski]

The best weathering is when you cannot see the brush strokes or paint build up. When I weather stuff, I heavily dilute the medium I am using in order to thin it way down to reduce heavy build up.

Just curious, have you ever tried the water-mix oil paints?   They are more opaque than acrylics and can go on in thinner layers.  They have a lot of the 'forgiving' attributes too.

Photos looked pretty darn good, but see the model for real and it was rather unimpressive.

The human eye simple sees things differently than a camera lens.  It can be easier to convince the brain with an image, because at a subconscious/perceptual level the brain when looking at a camera image has already learned to interpret it to a different set of criteria than a 'live' image coming firsthand thru the eyes.  (One of the things hyper-realism style painters do is use a pretty large canvas, so that the 'granularity' of the painting can exceed the threshold perceived thru the eye -- once that level is crossed, the brain no longer has enough information to tell the difference.)  Model building will always be a different experience than VR 

Ed

[ednadolski]

Just  because you are building a layout, nobody's forcing you to weather your rolling stock.

Definitely.  "Must be weathered" is a mindset that has been promoted and reinforced in the MR press for decades, and is probably older than most of us. The only thing that really matters in the end is doing whatever parts of the hobby you enjoy.

Ed

[mu26aeh]

I have a mix of weathered and non, will eventually at least get a generic fade/wash of dirt/grime on the trucks/lower sides of the cars.  To each their own.  On some layouts everything is pristine, and the cars/locos are too.  Personally, when I see that the modeler can execute the level of detail in structures/trackwork/ballast/scenery, and cars are brand new shiny out of the box, it makes me wonder how much more the video would pop if the equipment had even a hint of weathering/grime etc.  But again, all ideals/methodology points back to the #1 rule in this hobby , It's Your Railroad .   

[ednadolski]

@6axlepwr this boxcar was weathered with the water-mix oil paints, in-person there's not much noticeable paint build-up.  This didn't take all that long to do, since it is not a complex/extreme weathering pattern with lots of layers.  A couple of fade/grime layers, some rust effects, and the trucks/couplers was about all.

(I'm finding that I don't much care for doing graffiti lately.)





Ed