One of my continuing stuggles is to accurately reproduce faded colors on RR models... Generally, I've had good luck in custom painting to use small amounts of white or other light colors to lighten a base coat. But lettering is a bigger problem. For example on the Golden West Service freight cars, almost all the yellow has faded to cream, and the red to pink. It would be nice for faded sets to be available - Microscale did this with a recent Penn Central set. Any other suggestions on fading? I have thought of taking an extra GWS set and leaving it in the sun for a while. Not sure if this would be helpful to the decal itself though!
I think you answered your own question with the pre faded decals. Maybe you should toss some decals out in the sun to fade and see what happens. Since you like to paint your own you might want to look at this guys oddball but very effective painting techniques. this is probably my favorite how to site on the web. http://www.missing-lynx.com/rareworld.htm I think it is interesting that he does normal paint jobs and then layers on colors to create layers of paint like washes but for the whole surface to get weathered by. I think this guy really knows a lot about paint. Oh yeah, his articles are translated from spanish so the english is sort of quirky.
This won't work for discolored lettering, but to fade lettering to look like is wearing away. I have a air-eraser and I have sand blasted the painted on lettering on a few Atlas hoppers I have. It will also give the whole car a dirty look to it. Just don't spray in one spot to long or you will eat thou the paint to bare plastic.
Lou, the fading of red and yellow may be a problem, but I have had luck with white lettering using women's eyeshadow. Many years ago someone gave my daughter a fancy eyeshadow "kit" with all kinds of colors that she had no use for and was going to discard. Being the model railroad packrat that I am, I grabbed it to try as a weathering tool. There may be some eyeshadow colors you could apply over the red and yellow lettering with a Q-tip (my preferring method of using eyeshadow). Unlike pastels, Dullcote does not fade light colors. It's worth a try on some lower-priced rolling stock, IMHO.
I remember seeing an article sometime back about weathered SP locos that addressed the pink (or red) showing through white lettering. As memory serves, what he did was apply red letters first. He took the white letters and gently sanded them to thin them. Probably after this, apply a sealant like GlossCote or one of the protectants for making your own decals to bond everything back together. Then apply the white over the red. I've never tried it, but it sounded like a distinct possibility.
I am using chalks and I do not seal them. I fade the lettering by covering the car with the same chalk color as the car. Makes the lettering approach the color of the car. It definitely enhances the appearance of fading. I have some Bragdon chalks that are permanent, but I haven't tried them yet.
