BLMA 89' RTTX flatcar - weathering challenge

HuskerN Jun 9, 2012

  1. HuskerN

    HuskerN E-Mail Bounces

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    I posted several photos of a recent weathering project on my blog, and thought I would share here in case you missed it. The BLMA flatcars are really nice models, and I bought 6 to try them out. They look nice, but far from prototypical straight out of the box. I've been working on several boxcar models lately with varying weathering techniques, and wanted to try one of the flats. With so much detail, I decided to work some burnt sienna and burnt umber oils into the corners and crevices with a brush. I decided not to use an airbrush since I have found that the color tends to go on heavy on the higher surfaces, and thinner in the corners, making it difficult to get an even coat of grime. The oils took several coats to cover evenly and hide the brush marks. I then used a q-tip to take off excess oil where I wanted more yellow to show. I installed the trailer hitches at the end and added some oils to them as well. I think it turned out nicely for a flatcar, and I think it will look convincing with a trailer or two on it, and within a full train.

    These pictures were taken when some of the oil was still a bit wet, so it still looks a bit shiny. The dullcoat hasn't been applied either, which will help flatten the color. I have yet to actually operate one of these cars, but plan to set them up soon on the Marias Pass and see how they do on the 15" super-elevated curves.

    I have a few more photos on my blog:

    http://www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com/2012/06/rttx-flatcar-weathering-challenge.html

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  2. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Awesome job!! The deck looks very realistic. :)
     
  3. tehachapifan

    tehachapifan TrainBoard Member

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    You nailed the look!!

    Russ
     
  4. Scott Stutzman

    Scott Stutzman TrainBoard Member

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    I haven't tried any oils yet...... Looks like I should. The deck looks great!
     
  5. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have not tried oils yet either, but just won a weathered car on ebay that the guy had used oils and I wanted it to see how it looked in real life so to speak. After getting it and seeing this thread, Im with you Scott....looks like the way to go! :)
     
  6. James Costello

    James Costello TrainBoard Member

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    I agree, you nailed it John. Well done!

    Did you fade them at all first?
     
  7. Nick Lorusso

    Nick Lorusso TrainBoard Member

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    Here is one I did.
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  8. HuskerN

    HuskerN E-Mail Bounces

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    James, I actually did put a fade coat on before the oils, with my regular white fade tint mixture that I use on all other rollingstock. It didn't need much since it is already a light color, however, it did a nice job on the black areas under the reporting marks.

    Nick, what technique did you use? Your sills look really good. That and the underside is the hardest part on these cars to weather.

    HuskerN
    www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com
     
  9. OC Engineer JD

    OC Engineer JD Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Awesome Nick! :)
     
  10. Nick Lorusso

    Nick Lorusso TrainBoard Member

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    I did a color fade followed by chalk soot & rust & weathered brown.
     
  11. GaryHinshaw

    GaryHinshaw TrainBoard Member

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    Very nice gentlemen. I have yet to weather a flat car deck in a way that I'm very happy with, but now I'll keep trying. :) In case anyone's interested, here is my favorite reference photo for weathering a deck:

    http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=47481

    I was never able to come up with an effective way to simulate the tire tracks on the deck. (The ones in the foreground are especially prominent because this is a long-runner deck, where the foreground trailer spans two decks and presumably slides around a bit on curves.)

    Cheers,
    Gary

    P.S. Nick, do you have a macro setting on your camera? I'd love to see a closer photo of your sills.
     
  12. MRL

    MRL TrainBoard Member

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    I'm curious what would these have looked like in the early 90's while BN was still around?
     
  13. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    I've got a small fleet of TTX flats for my 70's operations, about 30 total.

    Because it's early 70's, the yellow ones are relatively new. The problem I run into is that particularly on the Santa Fe, these were run HARD. At 79mph-90mph, the amount of dust kicked up on a train is impressive. So they were relatively filthy relatively quickly. You might get one trip out in bright yellow, downhill from there.

    I've expirimented with a bunch of techniques. I've been airbrushing a light mix of 50% grimy black and 50% dirt underneath the frames and on top of the decks, a little different on each car. Lately I've been adding chalks. When the world was populated with Con-cor metal flats, it didn't take a lot of courage to weather. MT's were a little more difficult.

    You can get an idea on the overall look in the Super C video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km60IcCQ40Y
    There's maybe only one or two cars in there that the yellow is hardly noticeable. You'd say the cars were 'yellow'....but....

    Now with the new, and accurate, cars (I got a TrainWorx TTX, BLMA's on the way) it's a little more heart-in-throat. I've been also exprimenting with washes and chalks; I think my preference is now to a light wash with grimy black followed by chalks just about everywhere. I don't need rust for my era, hasn't had time yet.

    On this train, and on the ATSF in general, trailers had the same problem. One of the enduring problems of modeling it is that you can't read the trailers to see who they belong to, they are just too filthy. You can 'assume' the NYC flexivans by the side door, etc, that often that is all.

    This train has become a lot more fun to model with this new intermodal equipment. I'm also on the waiting list for the Trainworx ATSF trailers. But I'll have to admit that I've NEVER seen any photos of the "C" where an intermodal flat looked right out of the paint shop.
     
  14. Doug A.

    Doug A. TrainBoard Supporter

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    Some excellent work here! I'll admit I've had a little apprehension about weathering the nicer cars (high pucker factor) until I have more experience, but I certainly love these types of threads! I'm focusing on wheelsets for now but once the layout is "finished" then I plan to build out my airbrushing rig and get dirty!

    In the era I model the 89ft-er to Articulated ratio means less 89ft-ers though. I have two of the BLMA's and I think probably 6-7 MTL's. (and two Alan Curtis channel sides in the project bin). Probably won't add to that number, and just replace the MTL's with whatever else comes along. (Atlas, etc.)
     

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