Model Railroading > Adventures in Weathering Cars

I have been finishing up a few cars and not all results came out like I had hoped for, but they are all "lessons", eh?
Frist is probably a Kadee SP&S 40-ft, 50-ton PS box car that I added ACI decals and maybe too much dark rust and soot weathering.  There may have been a coat of Rustall too.  I did see some on-line photos that were close to this state of corrosion.  Yes, that is a "Herbie" over on the right side.
Second is a SPH&TS kit for a F-70-14 53-ft flat car, a long-serving part of the  SP's forest products fleet.  The separately cast deck is a cream color, to which I added some washes to bring out the bolt holes, board edges, and grain.  The rest of the car was very challenging to build with weak separate casting for all the grabirons and sill steps.  I ended up drilling out the sides and bending new brass safety appliances and that did not come out very well.  But the deck looks so good I will use this car for sure.
Third is an old Athearn Blue Box tank.  I had two of these and I want to quickly and cheaply fill out a pool of tanks for a new petroleum distributor on my layout.   In researching them I found nothing close to their reporting marks and two distinctive weathering patterns: a strongly faded to gray black and a quite rusted car, strongly on the top.  Almost all tank cars have a set of orange rust streaks under the tie-down straps over each truck.  The streaks can be done with a pointed applicator for powdered chalk, but I had trouble attemting the whole body fading or rust effects.  Here is the rusty one, the white fade is not a all a smooth gradaton from top to side.  I am resolved to not rush any more of these; my airbrush was out of reach and I think that is what an air brush is intended to do.  
Maybe we can all be kids and play in the dirt some times.........



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/26 22:13 by railstiesballast.

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Those look great!  I love to do weathering.  The only time where you are trying to make something look old and bad, and not new and pretty!  It's amazing what weathering can do for a stock Athearn kit.

Nice dirt, grime, rust and dust = realistic!

All 3 look great, especially the SPS box.

Bob

Posted from Android

I weather everything on my model RR, some a light dusting and
others a more heavy touch.

Those look much better than most of  my efforts.

Just a simple coat of Dullcote straight from the rattle can makes a big improvement.

The cars look great. Those SPHTS kits are a bit of work to assemble. Keep up the good work. The more you weather, the better your skill set gets.

Posted from iPhone