I have become quite fond of weathering the wonderful assortment of covered hoppers that are on the N scale market today. We are truly in a golden era of choice and quality when it comes to covered hopper selection and, although one can always pine for a specific and as of yet un modelled hoper we can't really complain too much, what given the much appreciated efforts of companies like Intermountain, ExactRail. BLMA, Atlas, Kato and a growing group of smaller companies and individuals who are making specific models. I like to think of a covered hopper as a three dimensional canvas for weathering and, much like the taggers I hate, the sides of a hopper somehow draw me almost magnetically to my work bench and my assortment of "weapons of mass weathering"............. The weathering can be subtle, overtly heavy, almost obscuring the livery or almost non existent. It can represent the climate the car experiences, the product it hauls, the type of service the car is in or the age and "miles" on it.... the possibilities are endless and allows the modeller to really add flavour to their railroad by adding these moving canvas's around their layout and helping tell the story of their world.... I like covered hoppers.. and I like em better dirty !
Nice work on those canvases Puddy! I'm still working on and kind of stuck on boxcars yet, but I'm looking forward to dolling up some hoppers soon.
Thanks for the kind comment - I used a picture of a similar GN hopper as a guide. The car was "dirty washed" first (98% distilled water and 2% grime black) When dry I used a dry brush of rust and medium brown paint in downward strokes to form a base for the rust. The I used Bragdon rush powders, going from the lightest rust to the darkest - I use a micro brush and pull down the powders until I like the effect, always blending the powders. I sealed these with dull coat an then weathered the car with dirt, soot and grime powders as normal, over the rust to further dull and blend it. I seal everything with satin dull coat.... This car's weathering seemed to work fairly well. Thanks for asking, hope that helps.
A few late additions to the fleet.......... I really like Airslide hoppers and proto shots show a wide range of weathering patterns that the modeller can replicate.
