Key Imports Challenger Weathering

[robert3985]

Here's a little project I'm workin' on today...and yesterday...and the day before...

Had a pristine Key Nakamura Challenger representing the 3985 while in-service before being converted to oil and excursion service much later.

Decided to weather it up and maybe offer it for sale...so, I'm almost done, with just a few detail painting and decaling things to do...

Photo (1) - Key Challenger before weathering:


Photo (2) - Same Challenger after weathering it up a bit:


I'm not done yet.  I still have some finer streaking, some different washes to apply, but, I'm continually amazed at what a difference weathering makes on models that aren't particularly known for their high level of detail like the Nakamura Challenger.

I'll post a photo or two tomorrow when I'm done with it.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

Man I envy you!  You are excellent steam  loco weatherer!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My minds eye says "that's too heavy", but then I remember the photos I've seen of these beasts in service. You nailed it.

[robert3985]

My minds eye says "that's too heavy", but then I remember the photos I've seen of these beasts in service. You nailed it.

Ed, I always overexpose my steam locomotive photos a bit to lighten up the "blackness" and on this model, the photo looks more weathered that it does in actuality.

I agree that some parts of it are a bit too heavy such as the hard water scaling, which I'm toning down a bit, and I'm adding a bit of streaking to the smokebox also.  I'll be adding more distinct hard water streaking to the rear of the tender too, which was typical due to the hard water problems UP had with the water in their territory.

Some of my reference photos show these looking like they were owned by the SP because both numbers and road names are completely illegible from grime and soot.  I didn't want to take it that far.

I was quite surprised at how dirty these got in freight service, especially in the middle to late '50's when running between Cheyenne and Green River where UP still had their coaling facilities up and running to the very last in 1960 when steam got officially shut down. And also between Ogden and Wahsatch the 3700 class oil-fired ones when in helper service, with oil soot everywhere.

Here's one of the photos I used for reference even though this is an earlier Challenger, with more water scaling than I wanted on this model.



Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[robert3985]

Man I envy you!  You are excellent steam  loco weatherer!

Thank you Peter!  It's a continual learning process and I'm still hesitant to start weathering up an expensive, good running model.  Took me about a month to work up the courage to start on this one.

Since I'm running out of my favorite weathering paints...Pollyscale...I'm having to substitute some colors for my usual fare, and I am looking into using artist's oil colors, which is not a new technique, but one I haven't explored yet.

Luckily, because I'm an actual artist, I have a little supply of oil paints boxed away somewhere.  Since I was painting nudes, the colors for weathering are the same as for flesh tones interestingly.

I should be finished with this later today, so I'll see if I can post some photos this evening.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[wazzou]

I think it's the water scale on the air reservoirs that look out of place for me on an otherwise well weathered model.

[robert3985]

I think it's the water scale on the air reservoirs that look out of place for me on an otherwise well weathered model.

I agree.  That's an area I'll be modifying.  That was supposed to be dust, but when I attempted to remove some of it from the bottoms of the tanks, it started streaking.

I'm using SP Lettering Grey for the water scale, and Dust, which I have run out of, is now done using thinned Aged Concrete...which is pretty close to SP Lettering Grey when streaked...

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Like I said, I said it looked overdone to my mind's eye, but my mind's eye is, in this case, quite out of calibration.

It's gorgeous.

[peteski]

Robert,  have you tried Vallejo line of water-based hobby acrylic paints?  There are also several other water-based acrylic hobby paint lines out there used by non-railroad modelers.

[robert3985]

Robert,  have you tried Vallejo line of water-based hobby acrylic paints?  There are also several other water-based acrylic hobby paint lines out there used by non-railroad modelers.

Peter, no, I haven't tried Vallejo paints yet, but they are on my list of preferred paints as I know they have a very good reputation.  Next on my list are the Tru-Color flat weathering colors since I have confidence in their glossy finish-coat paints and I assume their flat weathering colors will work just as well.

Yes, I am aware of non-model railroader colors as I was once a very active military modeler and military figure builder/painter.  Products have changed since those days so I should probably do a bit of research into it.

Thanks for the reminder!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

Yes, since several legacy paint lines slowly disappeared, bunch of new players have appeared to the market.
The Tru-Color ls an acetone based lacquer (or maybe even ink).  Similar to Accu-Paints line of discontinued paints I have been using for decades.

But I thought you were using water-based paints for weathering, that is why I mentioned Vallejo. They both are actually quite mature lines of water-based paints.  More recent ones are AK Interactive, and  some Gundam lines of paints from Japan.  Then of course are the well establisehd lines like Tamiya or Gunze CREOS "Mr. Color" water-based paints. They all have wide range of flat military colors good for weathering.

I recall in the last few years, there were articles in Finescale Modeler Mag. describing several lines of solvent based and water based paints.  I would have to dig out those issues to find the specific info.