Can anyone lead me to an article, give advice or website to help me weather my Cornerstone N scale ADM Grain Elevator kit. This will be my first weathering attempt... (yes, I do own an airbrush)
Barry, I have built one of the ADM grain elevators, but I don't recall how much weathering I put on it. I think somewhere I have some photos of it that I may be able to find when I have more time. Here is a link to my photo album on another forum that may have some pictures of it or something else of interest. http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/photo_album_view.asp?cname=N+Scale+Projects&mid=353&cid=1115&page=2&pic=Mvc-324s.jpg Portland is not that far from John Day...only about five hours one way. Why not just come for a visit and see everything up close and personal. We would be happy to answer questions.
Here you go, just follow he links on these URL's for pics. The second URL is of an HO one but the first is N scale, but I included both to give you some ideas. page 1 page 2
I use a weathering tecnique that is easy to learn, and gives pretty goor results. I use powdered chalks that I got from the trainshop, but I have just bought chalk pastel sticks from a craft store before to use. (you just rub them on a file to create a little powder) What I like to do is use those cheap hobby paintbrushes to apply rust colored chalk lightly aound seams, rivits, and just under anywhere water might drip down. Then I use a lighter color to represent dust, (light grey is my favorite) and go over the whole model. I just leave it like that, because if you spray dullcote over the chalk, your weathering tends to disappear. If the model is real shiney to start, I like to spray it with dullcote and wait about 15 minutes, or until the dullcote just looks dry, but is still a little tacky, and start in with the rust color chalks, then again powder the whole model with light gray or light tan chalk. The reason I like chalks better than paints, it because the particle sizes are smaller than the finest paint aerosols that can be sprayed, and if you don't like it, you can remove it easily enough with the canned air sprayers (like the air sold to clean dust out of your computer). Don't be afraid to try chalks for weathering, they are easy to get good results with!
The BNSF web site has some great grain elevator photos that may help you out. If you look under the agriculture section, there is a list of the elevators served by BNSF. There is an information page for each elevator and many have pictures. Some will direct you to a specific grain elevator company's web site where you can find even more great photos.
Barry, have a look at this site - GrainNet for anything to do with the grain industry. There's a section on old grain elevators that may yield somer good ideas for weathering.
