NEW TOYS!

[Rudy Garbely]

I was reading an article the other day about weathering with oil pastels. While I wasn't entirely impressed with the weathering techniques and the final result that the article writer used, the idea of using pastels stuck with me. I had used oil pastels in the past (for some middle school art projects, circa eight years ago), so I was familiar with their properties and dumbfounded by the fact that I hadn't thought of it myself.

So, this came in the mail for me today:



Cost a grand total of $7 on Amazon.com. My mom was buying something else, and any order over $25 gets free shipping, so I ended up with 50 pastels for $7.

My girlfriend bought me an old Walthers Rio Grande covered hopper kit for Christmas, so I decided to give the pastels a shot. I first dullcoated the car and all parts to protect the finish and lettering. Then used the pastels. Then dullcoated all parts again to seal before final assembly. Yes, I did weather the car while it was still in kit-form.

I ONLY USED ONE COLOR PASTEL ON THIS CAR, it was somewhere between rust and sienna and used with varying heaviness to achieve the different shades seen on the model. Without further ado, here are the results, which I have to say are fairly impressive even to me:






Oil pastels are by far the easiest, cheapest, and most realistic weathering material I have ever used. Highly recommended. All you need is an old, stiff-bristled paintbrush (for the streaks and hard-to-reach corners), some paper towels (which can be used to wipe off excess or smoothen edges or blend colors), and the pastels. That's all I used (other than on the trucks/wheels, which I painted).

Overall, very impressed, and I will be using these from now on for all of my weathering projects.

[Randy Earle]

They will be calling you "THE STREAK" in no time Rudy. I'm going to have to give that a try someday.

[gnsteve]

If not "The Streak" maybe "Rusty". Those are realistic looking rust spots and streaks. Do the oil pastels take as long to dry as regular artist oils? Your technique looks like it would be well suited to the door scrapes on boxcars. I like your new logo too.

[Rudy Garbely]

Thanks, this car was the inspiration for the new logo. My girlfriend felt special because I based it off something she bought me. ;D

Oil pastels don't dry. They are basically like a combination of weathering powders and a child's wax crayon. They have the consistency of a crayon, but the ability to be manipulated and mixed before and during application much like weathering powders. You have to seal them when you're done, otherwise they will smear with regular handling.

However, they're very easy to use... I dullcoted the car a few days ago, then once it was dry, it took 20 minutes to do the weathering, which was followed immediately by another coat of dullcote. The pictures I have posted were taken about an hour after I started weathering the car, the dullcote is dry and the weathering is sealed.

[Kevin Johnson]

Nice! Experiment with washes over the oil pastels. Thin solutions will bead away from the oil (wax) Try some pastel chalk pencils next. I use a dark sienna pencil with a very sharp point for rust spots. Have Fun!

[kcs1967]

Wow, it never occurred to me to use my oil pastels on my trains, Great job!