I'd really like some input on the weathering that I've done so far - I'm trying to keep it restrained but having some difficulty and would appreciate any and all pointers... Here's my GP38 after a little weathering. It's not perfect and there's more to do - but so far I've repainted the porch chain and the white cab roof. I added black weathering powder to the fans, exhaust, filter and gratings and grey weathering powder to the walkways, over the CSX logo and the top of the short hood. I used an extreme dilute white wash for the yellow nose and sills to simulate faded paint, painted in the class-lights (various photos of active/plated/blanked lights) and just visible is the staining on the left side of the nose. This is a WFE Reefer, I copied the weathering pattern from a prototype photo. Dusty bottom edge, dots of rust and a few white-spray graffiti (larger graffiti on the opposite side). This was my second run-through with boxcar weathering (the first (not the WFE above) was a little heavy handed) - a white wash, dirty black wash, then a boxcar red wash. After that, I roughly patched over the Milwaukee Herald and reporting marks, then used a fibreglass brush to clean up around the car number (I'll use a UP stencil set for the reporting marks). I identified my frosting problem, it was simply using too much alchohol and by getting it down to a drop or two rather than 50/50 with water it's not happening. Unfortunately, I still need to get the strengths of my washes sorted, because despite my best efforts they're too much. Lastly, I'm considering John Allen's (?) trick of putting different car numbers on each side of a car to get double-duty out of them - the linear nature of my plan means I only ever see one side anyway...
Instead of alcohol try blue windshield wiper solution. There is less alcohol in the blue windshield wiper solution and it won't overly cloud the surface of your cars when you combine the blue windshield wiper solution with paint to form a wash.
Looking good! I too have recently concentrated heavily on weathering, going back and taking one car at a time with a proto photo I want to use with each. I have found the combination of airbrush/powders/acrylic washes can give great results. Here are some good spots I have found for info.: http://www.weatheringfactory.com/ http://www.therailwire.net/smf/index.php enjoy! my best, Jan
