I just completed my 1st & 2nd weathering job on 2 MDC husky stack I picked up from a friend. These where just dusted with railbrown. Tell me what you think.
Looks cool...subtle, but it's better to have subtle weathering than extreme weathering. Is the graffiti from Micro-Scale or Blair Line? There should be a tutorial somewhere on weathering TTX well cars; they're definitely different than other cars out there, they're basically frames on wheels and not a box or cylinder like other rolling stock are.
Looks good! Weathering for me causes a lot of angst as it is something I'm not really very good at. I also frequently think it looks good as I'm doing it, only to then think it looks like crap when I'm done. Therefore, I tend to stay with light applications with soft transitions like you've done here. Getting the colors just right is also tough, bit I really like yours. That's just straight rail brown? Russ
Russ, Thank you and I typed the color wrong. its RR Tie Brown mixed with distilled water 20% paint to 80% water.
Buy some cheapo ugly Con-Cor, Bachmann, Life-Like or Model Power cars (with rapidos and pizza cutters of course) at a swap meet and practice your weathering on them. That way, if you do mess up, it's no big deal.
Thanks, but I believe there's more factors that come into play then practicing on a car (although that is very good advice). What works well on one car doensn't work at all on the next. Original paint finish variations, humidity (as in higher humidity = splatter), slight variances in your paint mix and/or thickness (more risk of splatter), how your airbrush feels that day. Weathering chalks can be finicky too with some of the same factors including original paint finish. Then there's this; they eye can really pick up a weathering job that does not look completely....well....natural. Some might say that weathering in its natural habitiat is completely random, so you really can't go wrong no matter what you do. Still, we've all seen factory and custom weathering jobs that just don't look right for one reason or another. How many times have you seen a weathering job that is basically impossible to see in a natural setting? Such as, someone airbrushes some jet black "exhaust soot" sort of randomly all over an otherwise like-new (lets say a stark white) loco but, save for maybe a puff of soot or two over them via airbrush, the intake grilles remain stark white. Whereas, in reality, the intakes would be virtually all (grimy) black to their borders given the level soot on the rest of the loco. Instead of looking like an enhancement, it ends up looking like the model is basically ruined. To me, weathering a car or loco needs to follow the "in for a penny, in for a pound" philosophy, but that opens up the possibility over over doing it too. I've hit some home runs and I've really messed up on some as well, hence my ongoing weathering angst! Russ
It looks good! One tip I got long ago that is so true: weather OVER graffiti so it does not look like it just got painted on, it does make a huge difference! Well done! Jan
Looks good, subtle is the way to go, but well cars are most brown and dirty looking cars on the road, so you may want to try a heavy coat. I second the, tag first, weather second method. Yes there are fresh tags on the road, but they tend to look unnatural. Now that you have an even weathering base on them, try adding some rust with some Raw Sienna, or Brunt Umber (can be water, or oil based) and either use a fine brush to paint on some rust streaks or dab them on using a ripped off peace of cosmetic sponge. This will take it to the next level and lots of fun to do. There is some good tips under the rust sections here: http://theweatheringshop.com/gtarticle.html If not, just run the cars as they look now, and enjoy! Thanks for sharing!
you are off to a great start. As mentioned, weathering is very much an art, and it takes practice. I have been doing a fair amount of weathering myself lately and find myself wanting to standardize the process. I am finding that it is hard to do. I also like using the airbrush as my main tool for applying paint. When I first started, I used the airbrush almost exclusive, until recently I started applying some acrylic paints with a brush either with a drybrushing technique or dabbing it on for deeper rust spots. I think using a couple different techniques on each peice gives it more realism. Again, great start, and keep practicing. Weathering is a valuable skill to learn. HuskerN www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com
That's an overtly cautious excuse, isn't it? Don't mean to be hard on you, but there are folks out there who are weathering masters, who have their own systems, methods, techniques they have refined with time. They can get the same results every time -- sometimes they're even paid to do it. But that's only because they've honed their craft, practiced their skill. Weathering is like baking a cake. If you've never baked a cake before, your first attempts aren't going to be very good. But bake enough cakes and you'll be a pro at it.
