Hi guys I am building an N Scale City of sorts, and I need to weather many buildings and other areas. I am too cheap though-a $30 kit of powders isn't within my budget, and all my buildings are painted with FolkArt and Delta $1.00 acrylic paints so liquids won't work. I was thinking I could get some asked from my parents fireplace, put them in a container, and various dry dirts from my backyard and apply them with a paintbrush. Any other ideas? Thanks! Will
I use cheap chalks and charcoals from the craft store, find a way to grind them and apply with a brush.
The weathering kits are just ground up chalk with a pressure adhesive mixed in. Acrylic paints(craft) when dry are pretty impervious. So multiple layer application is very possible. Artist pastel chalks scrapped with an Xacto Alternate oil base and water based colorants. Some use real rust obtained by soaking ungalvanized nails in rubbing alcohol. Thinned India Ink Kiddie water colors Extremely thinned craft paints Artist colored pencils Check out those ancient things called books, they have lots of information. Old Model Railroader magazines are cheap and have lots of methods.The newer ones do too. One issue each year will have a focus on each of the major topics of model building.
You don't need the expensive weathering powders. I have a set of art chalks, 4 colors (black, brown, rust, white), 12 sticks total, that I've had for at least 15 years. Using an old hobby knife, I just scrape off whatever color I need into a container, then use an old stiff brush to apply the resulting "dust" onto my model. Works great. Find the pictures of my produce warehouse - all of the weathering on that structure was done using these chalks.
McKibben is right. You also don't need an Exacto blade to scrape. A piece of sandpaper will work nicely, as well, and will give you a finer powder than just scraping.
