Model Railroading > "Interim" "fleet" weathering ?

So my current modeling outlet is building freight cars. That can be anything from doing very light weathering on a RTR model, to building, painting, decaling, and weathering rustbuckets. 

I have been a model RR for 19 out of the last 25 years; My break was when I was single, and in Army barracks. While I have always been interested in prototype modeling, its only been the last 45 months since I retired that I finally started. Before, I always concentrated on a layout. 


Anyone have any good ideas or strategies on quick, interim "fleet" weathering? Something simple, that I can accomplish in 1-2 man hours per car... I was thinking something simple like camo brown spray paint on the trucks, quick, lite airbrush fade to tone "new" paint down, patches/restencil decals, that sort of thing... Something that if time allows, I can go back and "finish", but at the same time, the car doesn't look like I just pulled it out of the box. Or maybe only doing weathering on "RTR" cars, and simple weathering on kitbashed or undec builds... 


Since I retired, I have finished about 32 cars. That is about 10% of what is on my shelves... At my current rate, I will never finish. I do have a high reject rate. I have another 6 or 8 cars that didnt turn out like I wanted and they ended up in the "do over" bin, and don't count towards my "done" count. Just today, spent my modeling time (2+ hours) fixing mistakes.

In 20 months or so, I move back to my "retirement" house, which has space for a layout. And I still haven't completed a locomotive project. Even at 42, the math doesn't look good. 

 

Rapido has a clear flat haze paint that can be sprayed through an airbrush that will dull and sun fade paint tones, which would be a starting point. There are plenty of weathering pigments and powders from companies such as Pan Pastels, AIM, Mig / Ammo, and others not listed here.

Depending on the breadth your local hobby shop, you may or may not find these immediately available to you. I buy these items from a local hobby shop that is really geared towards scal military modellers, Free Time Hobbies, who has an online sales presence. You can also find them at Squadron Hobbies and MicroMark, both are also online sales outlets. Hiawatha Hobbies (Waukesha, WI), Metro Hobbies (Ft. Myers, FL) and Hobby Towne USA (Kennesaw, GA) are also excellent stores and online outlets for types on materials. I am sure there are others on this forum that can name some additional stores.

There are plenty of online videos and military modeling mags, including Ammo Magazine, and a buch of European based mags that are available stateside, to help with basic and advanced weathering principles for airbrushing, powders, washes, filters and build-ups.

There are also companies like Moon Dog Rail Car, Circus City Decals and Weathering Solutions that make wet slide decals that are printed weathering.

You can send me a PM and I can send you some weblinks.

Most importantly, thank you for your service!

Regards,
Russ Goodwin
Oakwood, GA

My advice for weathering would be: 1)don't try to rush through it, nature didn't. 2)take time to really examine the weathering on an actual freight car similar to your model. Work from a photo whenever possible. 3) use vertical brush strokes always. 4) be on guard for tide marks from thinned paints.  5)dullcoat first, between any layers of weathering, and last. It protects your work from mishaps.

Oh, and when you use the camo spray can on your trucks (I do that, and on the wheels too), first put a little scrap of tape over the axle receptacles on the inner side of the trucks.  I clean the axle points off with a Q-Tip and alcohol right away afterward.

But that's just me.

Jim

At a minimum give each car a shot of clear flat to kill the shine. It's also a good base for any futher weathering you do later.

Many people use an India Ink with Isopropanol wash, arts and craft stores like Micheal's or Hobby Lobby should have the ingredients.. Plenty of stories if you can find the right website. Provides a dark outline on existing details. Add some chalks or more paint later.

> Anyone have any good ideas or strategies on quick,
> interim "fleet" weathering? Something simple, that
> I can accomplish in 1-2 man hours per car

2 hours should give you enough time for a better than interim weathering.  If you want to do it in fifteen minutes, fog the running gear with the camo.  Than use AIM's grunge wash.  Put the loco on a pad of paper towels.  Then eyedropper the grunge onto the roof and let it run where ever it wants.  A bit of blotting can "detail" the wash.  Place on track and grab the next loco.

If you are willing to spend a half hour, then grab a few of Vallejo's or Citadel's washes.  Vallejo has 18 colors. These washes give you some color control in terms of panel lines and raised surfaces.  This detailed wash job will take longer because it is most effective on horizontal surfaces which means some drying time before you flip the model.  Brush rather than eyedropper.

A light brushing with pastel weathering chalks can be accomplished in a few minutes, rather than hours, on a freight car.  If you're not happy with the results, the stuff can be wiped off. If you are happy, the resulting weathering lasts for years and requires no more work.  I occasionally use a highly diluted flat black (diluted with alcohol) wash, but mostly just use the pastels.

Quick. Cheap. Easy. Effective.

Art House

From way back in the 1950s John Armstrong's MR article is my quick weathering method. He wrote that he simply did what happens in the real world: dust and rain plus a little rust.
1. Dust the car with powdered chalk or pastel, making a few quick rust streaks and spots, more mud color around the lower body from mud and rusty water splash up when running, add a couple of vertical streaks on the ends from wheels slinging rust, curve grease, and oil.
2. Set the car on some newspaper and spray it with wet water, then brush in downward strokes, breaking up any pools of standing water.
3. Give each coupler a quick shot of compressed air (from a can) to blow water and dirt out.
4. After it is dry you may want to go back and touch up the chalk, or not.
My only addition to this is to paint the couplers rusty brown, paint the faces of the wheels, and paint the truck frames if needed.  I have done this with two plastic steam engines, it seems harsh to spray water on a toy worth a few hundred dollars but it worked just fine.  For the engine I blew the water off the running gear and valves too.
The result is an understated used look.
I do not mask off the windows, but do "wash" them with the paintbrush and clean water, being vertical the water runs off and they dry nice and clean.