Gawd, what did they do to that one? Take it mud-bogging? The ones you did look bad enough (meant in a good way), between the mud, crud, and rust the one pictured looks terrible (meant in a bad way).
I just lay that out there on defense for anybody telling me I took it too far! Oddly enough, I also found a picture of 311 taken in October 1972 that looks like it was JUST painted. Conventional wisdom says that they didn't repaint the red and silver warbonnet after June '72 - period. Maybe not. You be the judge.... http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=93970&nseq=65 If that weren't dated, I'd say late 60's. That's fresh.
I'm disappointed. When I saw the thread title..... I assumed I would be looking at wonderfully weathered Micro-Trains cars.
They really let them go at the end didn't they, that units really showing some hard use not just dirt. I does look freshly painted, not only is the freshly painted one on the point but the unit behind looks relatively clean too. I wonder if someone had decided the F's should bow out of passenger service looking good. Your weathering job looks great BTW. I'm trying to model the era around 1960 so I wouldn't go that far.
Oh, don't worry Ron, I've been doing that for years.... including some 'high value' stuff, apparently, that we won't discuss at the moment...
Oh? Weathering the "gold train"? I used to check the Sootsman Guide before an open house, and run all the stuff with the highest auction value I could find in the book. I'd then watch the collectors have coronaries when they saw the trains... It was fun, in an evil sort of way.
Great Job Randy!! They are very well done and very realistic looking. I haven't tried to weather anything in N scale yet, I just hope that when I do, I can get the look that you have accomplished. Craig