Weathering Rio Grande locos

How do you weather a new Rio Grande loco to get this look?



The pics will show the loco is actually not dirty, it just has a faded black look. I happen to have this exact unit as a custom painted Atlas loco, and I'm considering weathering it, but I don't know what to use. Same for the Tunnel Motor units due to arrive soon.

Here's another picture of another GP40-2 combo, with the same look:



(And of, by the way, interesting to note that some units have orange plows and others black. )

 

Hummm... Some black washing (in the billboard area) and -maybe- a light spray with dullcote?

 

William, to get an overall faded look you need to both dull the paint and apply a "dusting". The best way (I think) to get the even dust coat is with an airbrush and very thin, light color paint (like cream). After that, go back along the trucks and battery boxes and shoot them with grimy black with your air brush.

Those two steps will make the model look way more realistic, but the big trick would be to go back later with washes of very thin dark earth colors and even some lighter rust colors.

I would suggest getting a copy of the current issue of N Scale Railroading. There is an article by the infamous Richard Yourstone and he gives away all of his secrets.

Good luck!

 

Bill:

You can dull any paint whether it is a loco or rolling stock by applying 91% isopropyl alcohol to the car/loco. This will fade out the original color. I f you want to restore the color to the loco, first apply dullcote with an airbrush, then the alcohol and finally airbrush again with dullcote.

 

I agree it's a tough look to master. Here's my attempt at some Rio Grande weathering, although a bit heavier than the look you are going for. I was going for the heavier look since this is an older GP35.

I used first a light coat of flat black to knock down the decals, then a light coat of weathered black, and a coat of a mix of floquil grime, earth, dust, and weathered black, keeping the top just black/weathered black. I initially put this coat on too heavy. . . after the initial panic subsided, I took some dirty thinner to it and removed most of the final coat, and added streaks. The trucks, fuel tank, and filler then have some dry brushed floquil dirt, rust, and spots of weathered black.

I'm still somewhat of a novice at weathering, but so far I haven't done any serious damage that I wasn't able to undo (thank the Lord for thinner!)

I'm not sure if I'd use this technique on a tunnel motor, so I'm curious as to other's responses to this post also.

 

The weathering wizard, Rich Yourstone, who often showed his work on the Atlas board, has an article in the current/newest N Scale Railroading. You've got great timing and a color photo to go by, now go get that magazine!

 

I'm a subscriber, but my current issue hasn't shown up yet. Either that or my wife is hiding it from me

But thanks for the heads-up!

 

I was wondering if a blue wash would be a good idea. I know that may sound crazy, but look at (yet another) relatively clean, but aged, black paint job:

 

I find a little weathering goes along way in N scale.This was my third custom paint job,

 

Thank you Hemi,
No problem nit-picking mate,but one thing I do try to be accurate as possible,getting as much info on the subject as possible,so out of my vast DRGW library I present to you,(although I don't know about copy-right?)



another shot,I'm still looking for the correct spark arresters though,



& one to stir up the UP people,has abit of weathering & I'm considering putting UP patches on this unit lol.

 

Jason, what color did you use to weather that switcher?

 

William,
I'm a big fan of air brushing,so everything gets air brushed!I have found that Tamiya has superior pigments to all other brands but alas they dont do specific RR colours,mostly military etc so I mix alot of my own,if I couldn't be bothered mixing I just go the Badger,top stuff!
The weathering was done with Tamiya 50%khaki & 50% black,same for the SD90 mac,then just touch up here & there with weathered black.Just experiment & have fun with it!

 

Jason, nice work on the switcher. The SD90 certainly was a surprise...wouldn't those have been a sight, had the Rio Grande survived a bit longer!

William, I've made a lot of mistakes weathering over the years...and learned from some of them. Washes aren't too effective on such a dark background, except to tone down the orange areas. A blue wash might give a nice oxidized paint effect,but light dusting with an airbrush will give a more controlled, opaque effect, and you could spray vertical streaks. The key here would be very light dusting to avoid overkill, something I did a lot of in my early weathering efforts.

One thing that has worked well for me on dark locomotives is to tone it down with a very light overspray of a lighter shade of black...watch out for light gray or other light shades, you will get too much contrast with the base color that will give a salt and pepper effect. If you examine Rich's weathering, his techniques work so well because the color shifts are subtle, and each technique complements the one before. You could first tone down that showroom black with light dusting of grimy black or tarnished black, followed by a light wash of engine black to help bring out detail in fans, doors, etc. Then hit the trucks with some dust, roof with rust on the dynamic brake housing where the paint would burn off, followed by soot on the roof and walkways. I would probably try using chalk for the soot, and for some subtle streaking on the hood and cab sides. The airbrush is good for larger areas, or to highlight details.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing how it turns out! Kudos to you for wanting to weather your beautiful tunnel motors, they look pretty all nice and clean, but we both know they didn't look that way very long!

 

Thanks Warbonnet Fan,I read a report years ago I think from an insider in Rio Grande Industries who was quoted saying that they were seriously looking at the SD90MAC for their next loco,dunno how true this is but hey ,you never know.
As for your reply to William about using a lighter shade of black etc ,I have just started to use this technique & still experimenting with it but does seem to work very effectively,as I just recieved my new Badger 150 dual-action air brush & still working it all out.
Have you heard of reverse weathering Warbonnet?

 

If you go w/ a dusting of grimy black, make it a light one! I've learned that the hard way - grimy black is actually a gray, and can make a Rio Grande loco look pretty bad pretty quick - I did that the first time. I've used a mix of flat black/grimy black with some success.

If you use Floquil, though, you can remove your weathering mistakes (up to 2 days later) with paint thinner.

Dave

 

Jason - can you describe reverse weathering . . . sounds intriguing. . . .

Dave