Weathering

That'd be to use water paints, then ;-)

R.

If in doubt, don't. Failing that, practice on an old loco body, or suchlike. Not used the Carrs products (yet...), but being a powder maybe they will wash off, given a good blast or soak. Either that or set like concrete....

Either, find something of no value, and practice weathering, and removing...

Once saw an article about holding a loco body above a candle to pick up the soot burnt off by the candle flame - works well with practice to give 'sooty' stains, esp. on diseasels, but that did come off, and then only to stick to everything else!

Steve Banfield

I use that method regularly. It is quite effective. However, if you do try it, make sure you do it on the hob of your cooker with the extractor hood running. Remember that the soot which doesn't go onto the workpiece has to go *somewhere*, and that somewhere is your nice white ceiling! :-)

Go to Asda and buy some "Future" floor polish. Immerse the loco in a bath of it and leave to drain. This will cover the loco with an extremely thin coat of floor polish (that comes out with a satin finish). Weather loco using enamel paints, if you don't like the weathering, then wash off with enamel thinners. The polish will protect the original paint from the thinners and then try again!

It sounds strange, but it works. Original idea from a US based group (I think doing aero/military modelling.

Cheers, Mick

Far more importantly, get the candle to close to your lovely plastic bodied locomotive and that's £xxx up the spout ... it's a good method but practice first!

Recall reading a Model Rail 'Layouts that never leave home' article on a layout with superbly weathered stock, where the owner used nothing else but propietary brands of Emulsion Paint 'Test Pots' - with the obvious 'wash off, if it's wrong' option.

Cheers Robt P.

If you want to see what a weathered loco from a ready to run manufacturer looks like, have a peek at the website for Austrains. They can provide weathered versions of their models (New South Railways Government Railway Alco 44 class diesel electric). The weathering, especially black from the exhaust seems superior to the weathering as generally applied by Bachmann and Hornby to British models. Their idea of weathering seems to be a quick blow over of the lower areas with a brownish colour presumably to simulate rust from the rails and dust from the ballast. Hornby's weathered "City of Nottingham" Coronation class doesn't seem to show any sign of weathering or dirt from smoke on the top.

Agreed. I really wish they wouldn't bother as it looks so unconvincing. Then again proper weathering is a very subtle and painstaking art, by which I mean ART rather than merely mechanical airbrush or rag technique - see Martyn Welch's book on the subject. It may include - in the case of older freight and branchline stock - have to start with (re)painting the stock in the "wrong" colour to begin with to allow for sun and rain fading, such that freight bauxite goes almost pink and coach "blood" tends to a dull orange. This also allows for the dulling effect of "scale distance" which becames more important as the scale decreases - N trains should definitely have a more pastel and low-key overall finish. Spraying muck over what's clearly a robust unfaded enamel paintjob really only works for dirtying up post-privatisation stock painted with modern two-pack paints. (With the exception of the now-very-life-expired NSE livery still seen on 365s, 465s,

I've heard of weathering being done by slow and removable methods using Carr's Weathering Powders and/or artists' pastels - the trouble being that if it's non permanent it also comes off in annoying and unprototypical fashion if the model's handled with lifesize fingers.

Biggest category error I see at exhibitions is stock weathered with black paint to make it look "sooty". Not only is it usually badly done with a brush, so it looks like random oil spillage (unconvincing even for diesels), but black deposits from soot tend to settle on buildings and structures like brick walls and bridges - most vehicle dirt from steam loco smoke is grey ash, air/rainborne brown dirt, and the sandier spray from wet ballast thrown up by the wheels. In use, coach underframes vary from chocolate brown to almost mustard, and dirty black locos are mostly donkey brown - look at those millions of photos in any Steam World! (At least in my period - early sixties - I like 'em filthy).

I see MRJ is nearly a week late again - are we surprised? Will it make the Scaleforum deadline or set a new record?

Tony Clarke