Hello Everyone! Their has been alot of talk lately on weathering supplies and weathering techniques that people use to transform their plastic toy looking model trains into works of miniature art! If you have an art in weathering, please post your techniques here in this post. Let's make it where this thread can be used as a reference to anyone at anytime. Ask your weathering questions and/or give your weathering advice. Experience is the best teacher! Hobo Tim
First with a question! What techniques are best when weathering rusty rollingstock? How about very dirty flat, spine and Husky's? What type of weathering supplies should I purchase to get started? Is their a place on the web that has good deals on weathering supplies? These are my questions! Hobo Tim
Well obvioulsy there are far better poeple than me out there, but I will post my technique. What I do is basically paint what I want weathered with a light coat of grimey black mixed with flat back, then I take a q-tip dipped in alcohol and rub and wipe off all the black. basically what happens is you are left with gime in all the corners and such and it gives a nice built up look.
This should be of great help: http://www.mannresearch.com/rr/shawnvann/tommann_weathering72.pdf Tom does great work and I wish I could get a car to look anywhere near what his look like. And not to leave the Z scalers out...The Soo Line gondola is Z scale! I saved this PDF file myself to the computer.
I found some Jamba juice on ebay that promised to rust anything, and look real. The stuff looked home made, and the taped on inkjet printer made label just says Rust FX. It's known as Rustall, and you can get it at Z Scale Monster now. Good stuff too! I tested it on this tank car, and was real pleased with the sun bleached looking patches. This tanker also got the full strenght shake of juice, but took it better than the other cars. Another different, but happening effect. Weathered with Rustall, this hopper still needed chalking with Bragdon's powders to get that just right look. The roof on Lester's awning was oxidized by spraying with Dullcote, then brushing on the Rustall without shaking the bottle.
Weathering chalks! I hear the word Bragdon's quite alot. Is this the best weathering chalk available? Has anyone tried any other types? How about Micro-Marks Doc O'Brien's Weathering Powders? What would be a reasonable price for a large assortment pack of Bragdon's weathering powders? Hobo Tim
Jürg had asked me about the alcohol wash I used on the covered hopper. This is a copy/paste from that: In the India ink/alcohol wash. The ink is what is used for old style fountain pens. The alcohol is the 70% kind that can be bought at drug stores as rubbing alcohol. It comes in 90% too, this 90% is good for striping paint off MT rolling stock. Just pour some alcohol in a small paint jar, then put a few drops of ink in it. Now test it on something white. If it is too dark add more alcohol to thin it, if it's light add more drops of ink. When I said "light" and "heavy" wash I meant more or less ink in the mix (darker or lighter) If you count the drops of ink and get the mix just how you like it then you can write down the mix so there is no guess work next time. Alcohol dries quickly so you'll want to keep it in something with a lid. This fast drying helps out in the weathering. First slop it on a model and try to keep it in on one area or one panel. Your trying to spread it around now and get it even. If you let a quick brush mark dry, it will be darker there. Now if you want you can blow on it to help it dry while you work the brush around to keep it even. You don't want it to puddle up around details or there will be a sort of halo ring around them when it dries. Once dry you can give it another coat or two if you like. This is why you might want a light mix because it's easier to add then remove. Or you can add some light streaks downward to look like rain marks. In the attached photo I did a heavy wash real fast on a junk box N scale car to show you how it looks. You don't need to put it on this heavy, it depends what you want. You can also try mixing some chalk powder with alcohol to get a rust wash (I think that what "Rust-All" is) Best thing is to practice, that's what I do. Once you know whats going to happen when the brush hits the model then you can go to your "good" cars and do it. BTW this Ink mix is also what I use to stain wood! gives it a gray look.
I'm going to try the alcohol washes too, as I like the look Joe and Chris are getting with the wash. I want to try the Bragdon's powders over the wash to see if I can get subtle variations. There is a guy on the N Scale list who does some fantastic rust cancer spots too that I would like to learn how to do. Bragdon's powders are better than the Doc O'Brien's in only that they are self sticking. I used to use Doc O'Brien's but I had to spray Dullcote on first, then powder it about 15 minutes later when the Dullcote was still a bit soft for it to stick well, where the Bragdon's will stick by itself. Either of the chalk powders will tend to disappear after hitting it with a shot of Dullcote. Also, the Bragdon's is not real cheap. I bought mine for about $7 each color, but I really like it.
My favorite weathering technique is to airbrush a dry light white. It gives it a white grime look. I am still experimenting, and have not try all the techniques yet. I am trying to absorbe as much as I can.
In that PDF, Tom uses powders mixed with windshield washer fluid. I have mixed them with alcohol and put them on dry. I used the Rembrandt chalks with the washer fluid. Here you can see the white chalky fading like on the hood doors, it is the chalk (O scale, sorry): http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/786/On300-4-03.jpg Also used AIM rust powders dry on this. If you try the powders as a wash they tend not to disappear with Dullcoat, but it gives you a different effect too. Never hurts to try things on a junk car. That yellow hopper above was just something laying in the junk box. BTW when I start with a chalk stick I just rub it on coarse sandpaper to get a pile of powder. I have a airbrush, but mostly use it for paint jobs. I haven't mastered the fine misting technique. I did use it on a N scale steam engine once to dirty up the drivers while they were turning slowly: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/558/Berkshire.jpg
I use similar techniques, but like oil paints better than acrylics. They don't dry nearly as fast, and they seem to flow a little easier. I use a coat of dullcoat as my first step. This gives a nice tooth for the subsequent weathering to bite into. This helps avoid the dry puddle look where paint drys at the perimeter of your stroke rather than flowing into, and staying in the crevices. I use odorless mineral spirits as a thinner. Thicker paint can be used to pick out individual rotting boards on wood cars. The Wabash car below had this done first. Then a few thin washes of blacks for shadows and brown for color variation on the boards. I finished it up with some Pollyscale silver for the flaking galvanized roof and some dry brushed oil at the bottom for mud. Trucks were painted grimy black, then washed with some burnt sienna/raw umber. This CGW boxcar has an overall wash with the oils again. I let it flow around the details for depth, and then streak it down the sides to highlight the side panels. I thin the oil paint a little and splotch it near the roof. Then I wet a flat brush with mineral spirits and pull it down the car side. Obligatory Erie shot for Chris. These were in cement service, so I used white and grays to wash down the side. Subtle, but necessary to make the cars look like they belong on the railroad.
I give the piece a coat of thinned black acrylic, then i use some paper to vipe the black of the flat aeras, so the paint remains in cracks and corners. Then i use a dark brown and some light brown to add "rust`n dirt". I occasionally use some dullocoate on the shiny aeras. Here is a pic of succesful weathering: ( i need to do something about the wheels and the log load too...) This is an example of not so succesful weathering..... Can anyone see what RR it is????
