Post by slowfreight on Apr 12, 2013 23:27:08 GMT -5
Tjmfishing asked about these when I posted a pic in another thread. Instead of hijacking, I figured it was easier to start a new thread over here.
I started with a pile of the P1K Canadian newsprint cars of varying ages, including CN, DWP, and CV, and all looked more or less like this to start:
The first thing I do with my freight cars is disassemble the trucks and underframes. Underframes, couplers, truck frames, and wheelsets all get airbrushed with some sort of nasty ugly color mixed from a variety of Floquil things like grimy black, rail brown, roof brown, etc. Wheel treads get polished with a Dremel wire wheel. This works best on Kadee, where it gives me a high silver shine like real wheels; unfortunately, Walthers uses a chemical blackener that doesn't polish up like Kadee. I try to get this done when a car first goes on the layout, and I do about 7 at a time, which is the most I can stand since it's a lot of work. Weathering may follow years later, depending on my mood.
I did a lot of web searching for proto pics to see how these weathered in the late 70's. I didn't change car numbers or details on the factory cars, but based on proto photos, I added some wheel dots and consolidated stencils.
For actual weathering, I wanted to first darken the car. In this case, the cars seemed to get darker instead of fade as they aged. I add about 2 drops of something Polly S black to an airbrush cup of distilled water, and then slowly layered it up. The water based paint runs if you spray too quickly when it's dilute, but it's also hard to screw up the car. As the layers dry, I wipe some of the following layers down with a cosmetic sponge to make the ribs darker than the panels. Different cars have different levels of darkening. After this stage is done, I seal the layer with Dull-cote to protect it. I've had good luck with spray cans of Dull-cote, but airbrush is best.
Next, I masked the bodies and galvanized the roofs. I imitate galvanized steel by first spraying a solid coat of primer grey from a rattle can, followed by a light misting of rattle can silver. If I get too much silver, I'll mist again with a little more grey.
Using oils, I thinned burnt sienna with mineral spirits and brushed it over the roof ribs. I immediately wiped the ribs off with a q tip to leave the slight rust effect.
Some cars had darker streaks on the rivet lines, and I did this with AIM powder. I also darkened door stops and door hardware the same way when appropriate.
Some cars also seemed to have rust streaks from the edges of the door tracks, and I did this with a fine brush and dilute oils.
Trucks were finished out with more AIM powder, and everything was sealed with Dull-cote when finished.
I did a few too many of these and burned out, and as a result haven't gone back to do my CP boxcars yet:
Hope this helps. Sorry I don't have in-progress shots.
I started with a pile of the P1K Canadian newsprint cars of varying ages, including CN, DWP, and CV, and all looked more or less like this to start:
The first thing I do with my freight cars is disassemble the trucks and underframes. Underframes, couplers, truck frames, and wheelsets all get airbrushed with some sort of nasty ugly color mixed from a variety of Floquil things like grimy black, rail brown, roof brown, etc. Wheel treads get polished with a Dremel wire wheel. This works best on Kadee, where it gives me a high silver shine like real wheels; unfortunately, Walthers uses a chemical blackener that doesn't polish up like Kadee. I try to get this done when a car first goes on the layout, and I do about 7 at a time, which is the most I can stand since it's a lot of work. Weathering may follow years later, depending on my mood.
I did a lot of web searching for proto pics to see how these weathered in the late 70's. I didn't change car numbers or details on the factory cars, but based on proto photos, I added some wheel dots and consolidated stencils.
For actual weathering, I wanted to first darken the car. In this case, the cars seemed to get darker instead of fade as they aged. I add about 2 drops of something Polly S black to an airbrush cup of distilled water, and then slowly layered it up. The water based paint runs if you spray too quickly when it's dilute, but it's also hard to screw up the car. As the layers dry, I wipe some of the following layers down with a cosmetic sponge to make the ribs darker than the panels. Different cars have different levels of darkening. After this stage is done, I seal the layer with Dull-cote to protect it. I've had good luck with spray cans of Dull-cote, but airbrush is best.
Next, I masked the bodies and galvanized the roofs. I imitate galvanized steel by first spraying a solid coat of primer grey from a rattle can, followed by a light misting of rattle can silver. If I get too much silver, I'll mist again with a little more grey.
Using oils, I thinned burnt sienna with mineral spirits and brushed it over the roof ribs. I immediately wiped the ribs off with a q tip to leave the slight rust effect.
Some cars had darker streaks on the rivet lines, and I did this with AIM powder. I also darkened door stops and door hardware the same way when appropriate.
Some cars also seemed to have rust streaks from the edges of the door tracks, and I did this with a fine brush and dilute oils.
Trucks were finished out with more AIM powder, and everything was sealed with Dull-cote when finished.
I did a few too many of these and burned out, and as a result haven't gone back to do my CP boxcars yet:
Hope this helps. Sorry I don't have in-progress shots.
