Weathering Freight Cars - Techniques and Examples

corporaldan Oct 3, 2008

  1. corporaldan

    corporaldan TrainBoard Member

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    Here are some pics of the gondolas i weathered a few years ago. i first took a lighter and melted the edges to give them that beat up look . i also heated up a screw driver with a lighter and then used the heated surface to bent the walls of the gondola. i painted several layers of rustall on it to get the rusty look.
    The loads however, are made of actual scrap iron that i got out of a real gondola car. i jumped inside the empty car and picked up these metal shavings from the bottom of the car. some of these shavings that i have would look good on ho scale models and some are small enough to look goood on n scale.
     

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  2. corporaldan

    corporaldan TrainBoard Member

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    here is another car i weathered using the same technique
     

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  3. corporaldan

    corporaldan TrainBoard Member

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    this boxcar was pretty easy to weather i just painted rustall on with a cheap paintbrush. it took me three coats.
     

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  4. corporaldan

    corporaldan TrainBoard Member

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    these cars were weathered with a different technique that i created myself. i simply just took an old can brown boot polish and applied it on the cars with a q tip. i then took a tissue and wiped off some of the excess polish. i never spray any kind of finish on it to preserve. I did these cars about four years ago and as you can see the polish stays looking good.
    I havent gotten around to it yet, but i suppose this same technique would work on coal hoppers with black boot polish.
     

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  5. corporaldan

    corporaldan TrainBoard Member

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    that chessie system hopper in the previous pic was done with rustall.
    my mistake
     
  6. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Nice work Dan! I have to try the melting to make dents technique. I used techniques from Tom Mann's Weathering Guide to weather these cars, but I want to try a gondola with the melt technique now.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  7. MOPACJAY

    MOPACJAY TrainBoard Member

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    Nice work guys[​IMG]
    Here is a Bachmann car with the roofwalk removed and ladders shaved down.
    [​IMG]
    Another Bachmann car with a replaced roofwalk made from a cutdown Kadee HO roofwalk.
    I really like the shoe-polish idea.I am looking forward to trying that one.
     
  8. GaryHinshaw

    GaryHinshaw TrainBoard Member

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    Mmm, I love weathered cars. Here are a few recent boxcars:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Nice work on the gons there Dan. I haven't worked up the courage to give one that kind of beating yet. ;) Let's see some more!
    -Gary
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 4, 2008
  9. CraigN

    CraigN TrainBoard Supporter

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    Very nice work to all !

    Those gondola loads look awesome in those weathered cars.

    I can't wait to dirty up some of my stuff after looking at these pics.

    Craig
     
  10. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looks good everyone!:)
     
  11. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I've had the most fun weathering my sugar beet train cars. Each is different, and makes a great looking train. :)
    [​IMG]
     
  12. Biased turkey

    Biased turkey TrainBoard Member

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    I like weathering threads . Nice work everyone.
    ConrailDan, that old beaten gondola is looking good
    pray59, thanks a lot for the link. You did a nice job applying that Tom Mann's tutorial weathering techniques.
    MOPACJAY, well done. Could you elaborate about your weathering techniques ?
    GaryHinshaw, great weathering, not overdone. I would like to have more details. Are you using atrist's oil paint ?
    OC Engineer JD, that sugar beets car sure looks good. I thought that all the sugar in U.S. ( and Canada ) was produced from sugar cane.
    Here is my contribution:
    GTW weathered using burnt sienna oil paint, airspray of roof brown, grimmy black and L&N gray plus a wash of grimmy black. I think that just a single wash of grimmy black on any new car alredy makes a big difference in killing that out of the box shine.


    Jacques

    [​IMG]
     
  13. corporaldan

    corporaldan TrainBoard Member

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    good job! i like that gtw car
     
  14. Biased turkey

    Biased turkey TrainBoard Member

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    Thank you for the encouragement ConrailDan.

    I forgot to mention one important step: Before anything else, I airsprayed a very diluted coat ( 1 part paint for 16 part alcohol ) of the same base color as the boxcar ( in my case, Polly Scale # 414358 GTW blue ) . When that coat is dry, I take some off at random places using a BrightBoy rubber track cleaner.

    Jacques
     
  15. Powersteamguy1790

    Powersteamguy1790 Permanently dispatched

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    A Frisco Gondola with a crushed car load..

    [​IMG]
     
  16. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    This is a boxcar made out of wood. It's an old Gloor Craft kit, painted and weathered some years ago.
    [​IMG]
     
  17. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Sure can't tell its wood!
    [​IMG]
     
  18. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Here's a coil car I banged up....
    [​IMG]
     
  19. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Other side....really hate doing this to an ATSF car. ;):)
    [​IMG]
     
  20. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Most of the focus was on the lids....
    [​IMG]
     

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