More Weathering Experiments

Today I decided to finish up weathering for the half dozen cars and locomotives sitting on my work bench since a few weeks ago. The weather was nice this afternoon, so I moved to the patio outside. The plan was to apply dirt and grime to undercarriage and trucks, as well as seal the Panpastel weathering effects with matte lacquer coat. I don't have much experience with the air brush yet, so this was also a good opportunity to try out a few ideas I had and see how to come out.

I used a base of Vallejo ModelAir Burnt Umber, and an overspray ComArt Soft Dirt for trucks and undercarriage. Using a thin spray of these lighter colors brings out more texture on the trucks of the American prototype car trucks, which is an effect I like. The Burnt Umber comes out a bit too redish on light surfaces as can be seen on the RBWX box car above. The Soft Dirt tones that down a bit.

I used somewhat heavier coverage of ComArt Soft Dirt on the RSD5 trucks and equipment, too.

As an experiment I sprayed an old Maerklin hopper with ComArt Soft Dirt, heavier around the wheels and frame and lighter towards the top. The top third got a light coat of ComArt Light Rust. This simple exercise took me less than 5 minutes and goes a looong way to making the car appear much less toy-like, despite the oversize ladders and crude features. Compare before and after below.

I weathered the roof and side panels of this Gbs256 box car with Panpastels, and sprayed the undercarriage and wheels with ComArt Soft Dirt. Again a very simple exercise with great effect dramatically increasing realism.

I sealed decals and Panpastel weathering on all models using thin coats from 5-10 drops of Vallejo Matt Varnish. I made sure to keep the air brush at least 6 inches away from the model to create even layers. Between cars and reloading Matt Varnish, I ran water through the air brush to minimize gunk build-up.

Finally, some trucks and frames got an application of Vallejo Dark Grey Wash.