Here's some shots of some of my cars: the first one is just right I think; the second one maybe a little over-done; the third, OK I guess...
The cars appear to be weathered according to age, oldest most weathered. The roof walks are an easy way to tell general car age. Looks good to me!
You nailed it, Tony! My weathering on most cars consists of a dusting with a mix of white and a little tan pastel powder. I hit the ends of the cars with a little more of a tan/white where the wheels from other cars kick up dirt. Then I hit the couplers and trucks with brown/red dust for rust. One of the problems I have is that I generally like to model the early 1950's, so some cars (Like the Southern one) wouldn't even exist - and the B&O car might not be quite so dirty... On the other hand, cars used to get more of a brownish/black coating because of the steam engines - now you see more of a white/tan dusting.
Here is a covered hopper I did a little while ago. I don't really weather things heavily but I do like to add a little here and there to the cars that really seem bare like a covered hopper. The streaking of rust makes the car look a little more real. Scott
I think this boxcar is as far as I would go with the weathering. You need to be able to read the reporting marks to operate.
I think all three look very nice. I actually like the second one the best, it looks like it has some coal or diesel smoke weathering on it. Are the trucks weathered too,? ( it's kinda dark under there)....dave
Yep - I usually scrape off a little dark red and some brown pastels into a small plastic container ( I actually used the plastic packaging that came with some Testors liquid cement for these); then I use a small paintbrush to apply the dust to the trucks. I usually run the wheels over a piece of paper towel to get any dust off so it doesn't add to dirty track problems. I very rarly use Dullcote over the dusting - it can somtimes blow the dust off, and I like to have the option of being able to clean the cars off if I ever decide to.
This is not really heavily weathered compared to many of the hoppers I see going by here. The rib side cars do seem to pickup less graffiti than the smooth side cars, I guess they are harder to paint on?....dave
ctxm, that looks great! 2 bay hoppers used in any type of cement or concrete service often seem to get very nasty
I love cement cars, probably because they are fun to weather severely. My fleet of about 20 goes from almost pristine down to wasted. This one is about average:
I weather with pastels, and usually on the light side, I use an assortment of blending tools, but have found that, after a few cars, my very dirty fingers work about as well as anything. I want my cars to blend into my scenes, not stand out as too clean or too dirty. Mostly I'm looking for a faded effect, with a light coating of grime, and just a bit of rust here and there. I model the mid-50s, and I haven't done any research into what cars looked like back then. Weathering is not one of my high priorities, except when I'm taking photographs of my layout. Then I try to pick cars and whole trains that are pretty level in the extent of weathering. If I need more cars, out comes the pastels, which are at least 50 years old, and still going strong. A couple of swipes of light gray, then red, then brown, then black, a few rubs of my dirty fingers over everything, and it's on to the next car. For the most part, it's like my five-minute spray-painted backdrops--if I pay too much attention, it doesn't blend in as well. Same with diesel locos. I haven't really got down to the steamers yet. Weathering is something that is on the future "look-at" list. It's kinda fun the way I do it now (and the backdrops can be a blast!), and no editors have complained that I'm doing too little or too much. As long as I can be convincing doing what I'm doing--to my eye at least--I'm happy. I can figure out where rust might accumulate and cause that effect--more or less--with a quick swipe. I do agree that some cars are over-weathered. In my view, that's not a matter of how beat-up and faded a car might be, but rather in the thickness and brightness of the effects, and mostly the brightness. No pictures of my stuff tonight--I'm beat. Look at my blog or Railimages Albums for examples.
Robert, that weathered CN covered hopper is absolutely perfect, that is one fantastic weathering job. Well done, my best, Jan
Here are 3 of mine: a pair of cement hoppers and a Wisconsin Central covered hopper I had done for a previous winter scene that had just come through a snow storm:
Hi Pete, They looked about like you guessed, faded, some grime, soot on the roofs. little bit of rust The mixture of older faded cars and newer bright cars was interesting, some neat paint jobs showed up about that time such as the big blue B&M boxcars. Generally the equipment was not as rusty as todays cars and no graffiti other than maybe some small chalk marks. The railroads had bigger crews in those days so the cars got more maintenance.....dave
I do have one weathering technique that has not been discussed yet--real dust and dirt. When something is placed on my railroad--cars, engines, structures, people--it stays there. My railroad is large enough that I don't have to worry about de-populating anything. The opposite is true. Many times I wish that I had more cars for sidings, and even more engines for empty tracks in the engine facilities. Because they stay on the railroad, they eventually accumulate a natural coat of dust and dirt, particularly on the topsides. Some structures, like my roundhouse, have been exposed to the environment for 30 years. So it has acquired a natural patina of age. Yes, I drip a little diluted India ink onto it, but most of the weathering is truly natural dirt and dust picked up over 30 years. There's a problem here, though. 30-year-old styrene can get incredibly brittle as it dries out. I wouldn't considering moving this structure and, most of the time, I don't want to even touch it, lest something crumble into dust.
