Weathering practice

A buddy wanted a Patched Conrail unit and I asked him if I could play with it.

I know there are some obvious mistakes: The wrong car body, the wrong number boards and the lack of detail parts, but I was going for the weathering of a sun bleached, black unit.

I faded it using a white fade per Gary Hinshaw's formula, then a couple of coats of a grime wash. The rest are all powders.

Allen...

 

I like it. I haven't tried weathering yet. Maybe just scared. But like I said I like the look of it.

 

Was this done using an airbrush?

 

I like the amount of fade on it Bendtracker1... the finish looks a bit grainy though.

 

Thanks VIARailfan.

Picking a $70 loco compared to a $15 car does tend to make one nervous, I suppose until you've done a few.

Thanks for the comment.

 

The black paint and White wash fade was done with an airbrush. Here's link to the Fading Fast article that Gary H worked on. Fading Fast

The rest was done with a small flat brush and weathering powders. Then I sprayed a Flat finish with the airbrush to seal it.

 

What's a "Wash Rack"? :thinking:

 

Thanks Michael,

There might several reasons why it looks grainy.

The paint went on pretty smooth. I used Floquil mixed with a 1/3 of Floquil's gloss coat to give it a smooth satin finish, since floquil seems to turnout kind of rough at times. The Model Master Lusterless Flat that I sealed it sometimes looks velvety when dry. The Fade mixture I have noticed seems to be rougher than a flat finish like the Lusterless Flat, I think it's due the Matte Varnish.
This might be why Gary switched to MicroScale Flat instead of Matte Medium. The Varnish that I have been using has thinner viscosity than does Matte Medium. It's almost like diluted white glue used for gluing ballast with.
Some of the cars that I have faded last year felt kind of rough, there was a definite texture to them.

The other thing is my camera is kinda old and the light that I used to shoot this is awful bright, I had to run it through a photo program to tone it down a bit. That might have changed the quality as well.

But to the naked eye, it's not grainy. There is a very slight texture to it from the flat finish.

 

OK,
I went back tonight and toned down the yellow hand rails and added some chipping. Then I made some number boards and added them.

 

Have you posted pictures of your CNW GP40 or your Rock cab units on TrainBoard? If so, I haven't found them yet.

Doug

 

Not the CNW GP40, but I've posted a few pics of my rock units here:
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?146892-Rock-Island-Model-Parade&highlight=

 

The weathering looks great!

 

Thanks Jan! I've always been a fan of your work as well.


Doug, I forgot to post the CNW unit, so here it is along with a few other of my latest:

Before


After



CR/EL GP35

Before [I forgot to get one]


After


I had these on ebay for awhile, but no takers.

 

Here's another one:

A Katy GP40:


And one that is sitting on my bench right now ready for decals:

 

Allen,
These look fantastic. Do you work on commission?

 

Thanks Philip!
These are my own units that I tested with, I tried selling them once to feel the market.
PM sent.