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

[tehachapifan]

I was never very good at weathering but I used to be able to sort of hang in there with what seemed to be the standard for many years. Then, Mellow Mike hit the scene in HO scale and set a whole new bar for weathering in at least that scale. Now, there are many more masters of this art form, even in our scale, that have gone to whole new levels like I never imagined. One such example is the job on this autorack currently on eBay (no affiliation)....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-Scale-Custom-Weathered-Red-Caboose-Burlington-Northern-Enclosed-AutoRack-/110983360284?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item19d71faf1c

This is an absolutley perfect weathering and rust job, in my opinion. Totally convincing rust effects that I have no idea how to achieve (I tried the technique of painting on some clear finish, then sprinkling on some rust-colored chalks. What a mess!). Truly an art form that only some can master to this level. Now, typically there are responses in a thread like this where folks say something like "it's not that hard, here's what I did with..." and post a picture of something not even close to the level of what I'm talking about here. Proving to me that there are some that have it, some that think they have it, and some that don't have it at all (me).
 

[MichaelWinicki]

That is a nice weathering job.

I wish we saw more "rusty" weathering jobs in the weekend photo groups.   Lot's of folks applying black/gray/brown but not a lot of rust.

[Bendtracker1]

Why wait for the weekends?
Why not just have the mods move this to the Weathering, Detailing and Scratchbuilding thread and continue it there?

It's got a great title for it.

[Catt]

Personally I would be embarassed to admit I had done that mess.Or maybe the autoracks in the midwest just don't get that bad.

[nkalanaga]

I've seen some that bad in the Midwest and Appalachia, although not recently.  Many of the older cars seem to have been repainted or rebuilt.

[jnevis]

I tried to weather up a couple auto-racks a couple months ago.
I went through RailcarPhotos until I found a similar car and tried as close as my meager skills to match the rust on it.  I primarily used Testors brown and rust washes streaking it down from the top.  The pics aren't the greatest and they haven't been dull coated to tone it down a bit but look OK.




My last attempt to rust up a boxcar didn't turn out to well.  I tried to use CA to streak built up rust then powder.  One looked OK but another was WAY to scaly.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures.

[DKS]

Personally I would be embarassed to admit I had done that mess.Or maybe the autoracks in the midwest just don't get that bad.

Oh, they get that bad all right... and much worse.

http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/sp/ssw80735-1.jpg

From: http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/sp/autorack.shtml

[Sokramiketes]

That appears to be done with paint.  Likely oils.  Given the rust only on top of the roof ribs (lightly weathered panels) it was dry brushed on and not done with a wash.  The rusted out roof panels show some signs of stippling and therefore had the same oil paint applied more heavily.  The streaking rust down the side is then easy to draw down with some thinner. 

I don't think powders would get you very close here, and the oils are easy to work with. 

Obligatory "I think I can shot"  with same technique but different subject:

[HuskerN]

"so easy a caveman could do it".....   joking of course 

I actually tend to go a little beyond my intended level of weathering when I am working on a piece of rollingstock.  It is easy to overdo it.  But I really like dirty, rusty, grungy cars.  I have posted several illustrations with narratives on my blog which may or may not be helpful.  I have tried a few different techniques, looking for the "right" technique for me that I can replicate and continue to improve.

I categorized most of the weathering posts under "rollingstock":  http://nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com/search/label/Rolling%20Stock

Here are some examples:













HuskerN

www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com

[tehachapifan]

HuskerN, you are one of the few that have the "gift". Those are all amazing!

[Philip H]

HuskerN, you are one of the few that have the "gift". Those are all amazing!

+1.  When will you be releasing your weathering book to compete with Tom?

[Scottl]

Your work is excellent, great variety and realistic tones and textures. 

There is nothing to me that makes models more realistic than this calibre of weathering. 

[Bendtracker1]

I agree with HuskerN.
Sometimes, the hard part is knowing when enough is enough.

These are done in a similar fashion that HuskerN has done.  Mostly oils and powders. The first thing that I do is to use the Fading Fast technique that Gary Hinshaw described. 





Then start with your oils and powders

[strummer]

I was never very good at weathering but I used to be able to sort of hang in there with what seemed to be the standard for many years. Then, Mellow Mike hit the scene in HO scale and set a whole new bar for weathering in at least that scale. Now, there are many more masters of this art form, even in our scale, that have gone to whole new levels like I never imagined. One such example is the job on this autorack currently on eBay (no affiliation)....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-Scale-Custom-Weathered-Red-Caboose-Burlington-Northern-Enclosed-AutoRack-/110983360284?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item19d71faf1c

This is an absolutley perfect weathering and rust job, in my opinion. Totally convincing rust effects that I have no idea how to achieve (I tried the technique of painting on some clear finish, then sprinkling on some rust-colored chalks. What a mess!). Truly an art form that only some can master to this level. Now, typically there are responses in a thread like this where folks say something like "it's not that hard, here's what I did with..." and post a picture of something not even close to the level of what I'm talking about here. Proving to me that there are some that have it, some that think they have it, and some that don't have it at all (me).

Wow, the selling price was $60.00(!); that seems like a lot, although it is a magnificent weathering job. I guess the rest of you who have done such good work also should go into business...

Mark in Oregon

[Ian MacMillan]

I've been wanting to get back into weathering lately. Need to crack out the airbrush and oils. I just have so many clean train set cars ruining an otherwise good looking layout!