[ferroequinologist]

A recent post by RioGrandFan asked about detailing an Accucraft high sided gondola and who made the inside corner brace iron details. Running empty they do need some extra detail and I made my own corner braces using plasticard angle and pins for the bolt heads and with some work-worn weathering it looks quite good.
I once did a piece on weathering rollingstock that has images of the open gondola so I thought I would share this with those interested and I hope this low resolution PDF doc I have tried to attach has the images come out well.
All the Accucraft D&RGW rollingstock benefits from weathering as much detail is there just hidden with the even single colour paint from the factory that some weathering with bring out.
Russell

 

[RioGrandeFan]

Thanks for posting this. Great work you do!
I will have to give it a go.

 

[ferroequinologist]

Hope you get something from this as I tend to waffle on a bit in the text and that the PDF document was OK to open with photo's clear. Let me know if image quality is still Ok if you decide to print the document as it's a low resolution copy.
Russell

 

[RioGrandeFan]

It opened with no issues and clear pictures. Thank you Russell.

 

[ChamaLlama]

Thank you so much for this... your collection, track setup, and videos have been a major inspiration for me. My next adventure is re-learning how to weather again after a 25 year break!

Note: I discovered that Tamiya's oxide red primer is an almost perfect match for the AMS cars. Below is a sample of the wheels on my drop bottom gondolas.

 

[RioGrandeFan]

Note: I discovered that Tamiya's oxide red primer is an almost perfect match for the AMS cars.

It looks like a perfect match. Are those the wheels that come with the drop gons?

 

[ferroequinologist]

Yep, weathering makes a difference and adds realism easy to do as mistakes can be the best weathering. I didn't know that Tamiya oxide red primer is a good match, spray or in the bottle and do have the Tamiya number for it I must get some too.
Russell

 

[ChamaLlama]

Russell,

I use the spray can... SKU is TAM87160. There's an obvious difference in sheen (matte), but that's a non-issue once the model is weathered. It's unavailable in the US at the moment, but I read somewhere that Tamiya will resupply in a month or two.

RGF,

No, those are cast TrueScale wheels from The Train Department. Unfortunately, they're discontinued and Jason won't be doing another run since there isn't enough demand. Have a bunch, but kicking myself for not buying a few more sets!

 

[ferroequinologist]

Thanks I'll see what I can get here in Australia but a lot of Tamiya paint colours have been "unavailable" for a while down here now. Looks like I am also a bit slow on the wheels as I was thinking of getting some of those great wheel sets from Jason at TTD but not quick enough.
Russell

 

[RioGrandeFan]

Here’s my practice flat car. I’m not sure if I like it so far but I’m not done yet I still want to add black wash and lighten some of the really dark spots. I definitely like it better than the stock brown painted look.

I started with a light gray base coat then applied a dark earth wash color and black wash in some areas.

 

[ferroequinologist]

That's good RioGrandeFan, the dark wash really brings out the wood grain and coupled with the different staining patches it looks way better than the standard flat red paint Accucraft apply. Well done.
Russell

 

[RioGrandeFan]

Here is my final result on the wood decking. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

 

[ferroequinologist]

Oh yes, the final touches do make it look good and placed outside on a track it will now look very realistic.
Russell

 

[bmwr71]

One of the things that got me into G gauge modeling was weathering. Many years ago I was at a Christmas flea market and some guy had a large table with some G buildings and a Bachmann locomotive and some cars running on a loop. I was impressed by the size (no fiddling with small parts) and the loco (tender) sound. Then I noticed that one car was especially realistic looking. It had been weathered. Asked the guy about it an the said some friend had done it for him. That really made me want to get into G and not long afterwards, bought my first Bachmann set and the rest is a history of spending too much money and time on the G hobby.

Doug

 

[Scott]

Mate, great work on the article and also very useful. I'll use a number of methods to age / weather items from washes and dsitressing to staining, using chalk / dirt to making additional prototype details.

 

[Tom Bowdler]

"now back to my experiments in weathering live steamers......"
Hi Russell, The rolling stock tutorial is great, when will you publish the above? I have this way too shiny Accucraft C-16.
Thanks, Tom

 

[ferroequinologist]

Thanks Scott, I'm glad you can use some of the technique's on your fabulous scratch built models.

Tom, right now I am not going to 'publish' another article on Live Steam Loco weathering, but I may do in the future, just too many projects to do first.
Weathering a live steam engine is much the same process as the rolling stock in that you need to view images of the real thing to get colours and placement of weathering first, apply some paint washes but more often straight paint dry brushing of colours and finish with applying diluted spray colours that will blend the lot with dark grey's, blacks and a little dark brown colours. The important thing is to use different shades of colours in matt finish and the lower firebox area is often ignored where in the real ones it usually burns the paint to a light clay colour with grey coal ash over that.
The surface must be scrupulously clean and the problem is after running a loco, then deciding to paint, it gets embedded with steam oil and any paint weathering application after that might not stick very well and can be rubbed off. I usually weather when the loco is new after a good scrubbing or if I have to repaint the whole thing. But having said that I did weather a well used loco (my K27) and it had held up reasonably, but I don't rub it dry after a run I leave it 'dirty' and only give it a light wash with a soft paint brush in soapy water yearly so I don't rub any weathering off.
Mistakes I have made are not painting on a really clean or steam oil impregnated surface and using a matt clear spray over the top. I found the matting agent in the clear absorbs the oil (the thing that makes it matt is micro talc particles) over time and puts an shiny oily sheen over the loco. I wanted a matt finish on the loco's as they are covered in coal ash on the real ones and rarely shiny. On a plain painted surface you can wipe off the oily sheen but on a heavily applied matt clear surface you either end up rubbing the coating off that is really awful or just put up the slight glossy oil sheen.
You can see the sheen here on my C-19, it's very oily after an hours running, in this image below but you get the idea. I have a blast pipe straight up the chimney and not a chuff pipe that would redirect most of the oily exhaust down into the smokebox so it's a problem of my own making I suppose.