I have some old cars that I have been weathering for practice. before I get too carried away I thought I would go to the forum to get some feedback. Please tell me what you think.
You did a good job showing the grime that the roof collects over time with the effect of some of that running down the side without overdoing it. And most important you show the effects of grime kicked up from the roadbed and around the door opening from loading actions. Just enough without over doing it which can detract. Nice job.
As others have said, the effect is quite believable and very good looking. Two suggestions I would have: a wash of grimy black on the running board will give it much more depth and a better appearance, and as best as I can see it appears there is some weathering on the wheel treads - be careful of this, as it can be transferred to the tracks and cause problems down the line.
Thanks for all the comments! I will hit the running board with some black and see how that looks. As for the wheels, they are the brown atlas wheels, , no paint on them for sure! So I think the picture is deceiving! I have a few other cars that I will take photos of for some more feedback. Thanks again!
You've done a very good job on a color of car I always think are hard to approach for weathering: white.
Nice job. I always recommend doing a little weathering at a time so you can let it grow on you and be sure to not over do it. This is moderately heavily weathered in my opinion, but looks quite nice with the weathering being distributed well. With the super critical eye turned on and realizing what's in the photo may not be how it appears in real life: the reporting mark and some other marks look too starkly black and thus too clean and new. A very, very, very light dry brush with an off white similar to the base color of the car would be one way to fix that. So little that you really can't even notice it would probably be perfect. You don't need it to look obviously faded, you're just aiming to tone it down.
Given that I have never intentionally weathered a car I'll just add my kudos. Once you discontinuance use of these cars in your trains you may want to put them in the background on an old abandoned spur or use them for improvised tool sheds up on blocks.
I'd add blackening to the trip pins. I use a plain old Sharpie (or similar marker) for this. Looks good!
Great suggestion! After I posted the pictures, the pins caught my eye right away...but I never thought of using a sharpie!
Really , it looks good for a start, now all ya need now is some dents that the forklift op left for a prize ..... and a couple of serious rust spots. Remember that overtime, any and all black will bleach out to a dull charcoal-grey look, especially if the cars predominantly run north and south or are consistently staged north or south.
I started off with using very thinned out washes of rust and engine black which gave me a grimy base.. Then I "washed" the car using straight 50% alcohol and a brush that was only as wide as one panel on the car, making sure to go from the top down, and I tried my best to get a streaked look. If i didn't like it I "dirtied" it up again and "washed" it with the 50% alcohol. To finish, I have a Tamiya weathering set (snow, soot, and rust), that was applied using a foam tip applicator and various stiff bristled brushes to emphasize the rust and dirt on the roof.
I'd say nice job...and the best thing you did was not overweather it. I would probably have a light dusting on the bottom edge with a "dust" color (beige, etc.) just to simulate the ground grime that swirls up and coats everything. Key is very light, and thinned color. While you're at it....million percent improvement by clipping off the stirrups and replacing with either MTL's one piece solution (part number 499 65 905 ) or BLMA/GMM etched stirrups. (the latter would require drilling)
