Weathering & Rust: I'm One Who has Been Left in the Dust

[mark dance]

The posted work is beautiful.  Congratulations.  They are real works of art!

Now maybe a bit of a contrarian view on weathering...at least at the fleet level.

Maybe it is my prototype, or maybe the time period I model, or a combination of the two, but I rarely see rust to the level of these examples in the prototype photos I use as reference.  Over the last 3 months I have nearly completed weathering all my rolling stock.  I started out very heavily weathering includign a lot of rust and primer paint and found the result quite unrealistic when all the cars were strung together.  The trains just did not look like what I see in reference photos.  The exceptions were open top cars which are definitely more heavily weathered, especially the unit trains of 2 bay hoppers we use to carry ore.

I then backed off and went for a much more subtle effect, which I personally find more challenging to replicate given my skill level and lack of experience.   Now with the end in sight only about 1 in 5 cars in the fleet is "well weathered" with the balance either slightly or moderately weathered.  Overall I find the mix of this rolling stock to be much closer to what I see in prototype photos.  In some respects it makes the well weathered units stand out much more from the sea of dull, box car red, 40'box cars.. 

Please also bear in mind I model 1970 and my prototype (CPR) was just introducing the "Action Red" scheme and had only relatively recently introduced "Script" lettering scheme and these two styles make up 40-50% of my home road cars.  The older "Block" and "Spans the World" schemes are more heavily weathered respectively but even these show little signs of rust in the prototype photos.  Additionally, the BN had just been formed so while the GN and NP predecessor cars on the layout may be heavily weathered, practically the BN painted equipment is nearly new.

Anyway digging through my photos here are a few with a bit of rust which match photos I have of this equipment.  Rust, when present in the photos, is very localized to a few body panels, the trucks and the units in smelter service.  Also when rust is present on cars in the proto photos I have it is more common for it to be a general tone over large portions of the car surfaces then to be rusted right through.  Perhaps if rust through was imminent these would have been repaired?  Many of the well weathered cars I have, instead of rust spots, sport new "patches" in their paint to show where panels had been repaired.

As I said, a contrarian point of view.  I love and appreciate the modeling that goes into a heavily weathered and rusted model...but I believe these are rare exceptions in my timeframe and prototype.











thx

md

[Bendtracker1]

Mark,
You’re exactly right in your thinking.

Weathering should be modeled in accordance to era and in some instances; local.  Just like paint schemes if you’re modeling a specific era, you wouldn’t see a script lettered CP unit running in consist with a CP GEVO.

If you’re modeling a modern road such as CSX or BNSF, then the majority of the cars will have moderate to heavy weathering, including the rusted out shortline cars.  If you’re modeling in an era such as yours, in the 70’s then you should see light to moderate weathering mostly road grime and dirt with the exceptions [in your case] like the predecessor roads of the BN.  These would be dirtier and would also see a lot of fresh re-stencils that the BN would have made.  Some may have a bit of rust around the doors and such from common usage.

It could also depend on the specific road you’re modeling.  Some roads took very good care of their rolling stock, while others had a more differed maintenance program.

Graffiti should be modeled in era as well.  On your layout the only kind of Graffiti should be from the occasional tagging from a ride hitching Hobo, but multi colored sprayed taggings should not be seen.

In my opinion, nothing looks worse than going to ebay or youtube and seeing where someone took a 40’ steel reefer and applied modern tagging to both sides with no weathering.  A little forethought can make or break the model or scene.
Of course, this is up to the individual modeler…


BTW, your fleet looks great!

As do all that have been posted so far.

[billvassar45]

Bendtracker1 you do an execlant job, very well done.

[Dave V]

Rust and fade have been difficult for me in the past, but a decent dual-action internal mix airbrush has made things better for me.  The rest is just acrylic washes.

[Dave V]

Excellent work, everybody!

[HuskerN]

Totally agree that getting weathering right involves a lot of variables.  Understanding your era and the prototype, to applying the technique correctly to the model, and then having the final product look hopefully something like the real thing.  One thing I remind myself often is that an N scale car magnified in a photo on our large computer monitor exposes every little detail.  Standing trackside next to the layout, the same car blends into the surrounding environment.  I am always in awe of the HO guys and their ability to replicate weathering flawlessly.  Something that is simply more difficult to do in N scale.

Since the thread subject included "rust", I included some of my rustier buckets.  I do however like a more subtle weathering, and find that a subtle job is actually more difficult.  So Mark, I agree with your approach, and buy-in to the whole "less is more" in many cases.

Here are a few examples of some "tweeners"  (new and rust bucket):

Nice work by all by the way.  And thanks for the comments.









HuskerN

www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com

 

[HuskerN]

one more that falls into the "rust" category:





Ok, I'll stop now... 

HuskerN

www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com

[MrKLUKE]

.

[MichaelWinicki]

Mark, I think you've made good points about moderation and weathering for your era.

[MichaelWinicki]

I spent an hour today watching a Penn Central DVD.

Boy, lot's of weathering would be needed to capture the feel of that era.

As far as rust goes, hoppers and gons (naturally) seemed to suffer from various degrees of rusting.  Probably just a few cars weathered to that extent, would set the tone for a layout.

[Bendtracker1]

Just added three more units to the roster.

Atlas GP7 ex Rio Grande



Kato E8's ex UP






It wasn't until after I got the decals applied that I noticed they were the same numbers that LifeLike used on their E8 set   

There are few more shots on the blog.

[flight2000]

HuskerN

www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com

The tagger doing the "Chunk" is really getting around.  We need to keep our eyes peeled for this dude and don't let him anywhere near your stuff... 



For rust, I've been using a product called Sophisticated Finishes Rust Antiquing.  It's a two part system that is applied like paint.  I really love working with this stuff, because you get variations of rust patterns that look good, at least to me anyway.      You can get it at your local Michael's Craft Stores.

Here's a few examples:











Brian

[MichaelWinicki]

Great weathering Brian!

I luv the beat-down the gons have taken.

You see a lot of weathered gons and hoppers, but most of the time their sides are in pristine condition and the weathering doesn't jive with the overall condition of the car.  The condition of your gons matches the weathering.

[GaryHinshaw]

Haven't been back to this thread in a while, but there are some great examples here!  I like how the snow shields turned out Allen.

-gfh