Weathering with pan pastels per MR article by T. Koester

[Sokramiketes]

Okay, I would have just edited my previous post and added this on, but the controls to edit are gone.
Has anyone else noticed this problem?

So I have now read Tony Koester's article.
Sorry, I see nothing wrong with it.  The article and the opening editorial page of the magazine make it clear,
repeatedly, that this is a simple, imperfect, way to get some equipment much more presentable than it's new-box-shine
state, and they repeatedly say that there are better ways.
Not only that, but Koester's end result, I think, looks pretty good.  It's not great, but it's pretty good, and in fact,
is probably good enough that if the hoardes of readers who never tried weathering tried this, they would be
extremely happy with it and be encouraged to try more. 

I don't see it at all as a bad or shameful thing for MR to be promoting. 

As for the cover photo, well, I don't like the weathering job on the engine, but it was perfectly fine to have
somebody else use Koester's technique to try it out.  In fact, the editorial makes it clear that they were skeptical, so
they wanted somebody else to try it.

Ironically, I think the worst part of the cover engine is the brown drivers, and they were NOT done with the pastels.
Grivno airbrushed those!  So he added more complexity and time, and in my view, made the end result worse.

Anyhoo, there's my $.02.  I think it was a perfectly good and helpful article for MR to run.

I think you might be the third or fourth person who actually read the article and editorial.  And I agree 100%.

[wmcbride]

Okay, I would have just edited my previous post and added this on, but the controls to edit are gone.
Has anyone else noticed this problem?

So I have now read Tony Koester's article.
Sorry, I see nothing wrong with it.  The article and the opening editorial page of the magazine make it clear,
repeatedly, that this is a simple, imperfect, way to get some equipment much more presentable than it's new-box-shine
state, and they repeatedly say that there are better ways.
Not only that, but Koester's end result, I think, looks pretty good.  It's not great, but it's pretty good, and in fact,
is probably good enough that if the hoardes of readers who never tried weathering tried this, they would be
extremely happy with it and be encouraged to try more. 

I don't see it at all as a bad or shameful thing for MR to be promoting. 

As for the cover photo, well, I don't like the weathering job on the engine, but it was perfectly fine to have
somebody else use Koester's technique to try it out.  In fact, the editorial makes it clear that they were skeptical, so
they wanted somebody else to try it.

Ironically, I think the worst part of the cover engine is the brown drivers, and they were NOT done with the pastels.
Grivno airbrushed those!  So he added more complexity and time, and in my view, made the end result worse.

Anyhoo, there's my $.02.  I think it was a perfectly good and helpful article for MR to run.

Ditto.

[Philip H]

I think you might be the third or fourth person who actually read the article and editorial.  And I agree 100%.

As a continuous MR subscriber since 1982, add me to that list. I was more offended by the other weathering article, which made it look like everything from the 1920's was constantly covered in mud.

Now lets see if we can get 7 pages of discussion of the lead layout article - after all it was N scale!

[soo]

I made it a point to go pick the issue of MR so I could read it.

  Nothing wrong with the article that I see, I am with Phillip, the other article was more,, how you say,,, a waste of my time,which I will never get back.  I guess you can apply the following saying to the TK article or to the article that I don't like. " you can satisfy some of people some of the time, but you can not satisfy all of the people all of the time"

 That includes my self. Now as for something that I did like about the issue,, the N scale layout article,,heck it even has SOO. What more could I ask for. The weathering article in question and the disscussion here has driven me to get my weathering stuff out and do something with it.

  Wyatt

[6axlepwr]

This is my opinion. Weathering cannot be explained in a written article. There are to many variables. Weathering is a process and it is the process that needs to be watched to learn how it is done and to develop your own methods. With that said, I highly recommend for those that want to learn the art, to get on Youtube and look up some of these modelers.

ScaleModelMedic
OrcPainterNerd
BuyPainted
Anything by AK Interactive
Anthything by Miguel Jimenez

And just a general search on Scale Model Weathering or Model Weathering Techniques.

A lot of what they show is extreme and granted, trains don't regularly go plowing through buildings, trees and shrubs or get shelled on a regular basis. But, the techniques can be scaled down and moderated to perform for model railroading as well.

I have learned loads of stuff from Youtube and have tailored it to my preferences. I am still learning and trying lots of these techniques Plus a few of my own made up stuff. There are a lot of opinions. listen to them and then form your own and figure out what works best for you.

I spend a lot of lunch hours watching military modeling videos on Youtube. The techniques and ideas go a long way to helping me be a better modeler.

[mmagliaro]

I agree that weathering can't be "explained", but then, I could say that about building a steam locomotive,
or doing just about any model railroading task.  What can be written in an article are explanations and illustrations of techniques.  Then, one must go off to experiment.   Video is helpful for demonstrating anything.

Kalmbach publishes a "Steam locomotive details and weathering" book which is actually a collection
of articles from assorted 1950s MR "blue book" issues all about prototype steam locomotives,
plus some weathering articles by John Pryke.    I found it very useful for learning the theory behind
where all the dirt, rust, and corrosion comes from on a steam locomotive, and how to use weathering
to simulate it.   It may be a reprint/rehash of stuff that Kalmbach previously published, but for $12 bucks
or so, all collected in one place, I thought it was very handy and worth it.

[peteski]

To comment on Cody's weathered locomotive, it really isn't bad at all. Well, except maybe for the color of the running gear and the coupler.

The real problem is the photography of the cover shot. The lighting of that scene makes the model look almost shiny and very toyish.  The light reflecting off the boiler, cab, and the tender makes the model look too bright, or too light in color.   But if you look at the photo of that same model on page 43, it actually doesn't look bad at all.  The black and white photo of the prototype Cody was modeling shows rather light weathering on the 1:1 locomotive.

As far as the weathering technique goes, I don't see anything wrong with it. The model weathered by Tony looks pretty good to me.  The silly 7-minute thing must have been mentioned to show modelers that weathering is not something that takes a long time (not to set olympic records for weathering). 

[MVW]

So ... in the time it took me to read this thread, apparently I could have weathered 13-14 cars. 

Jim

[robert3985]

So ... in the time it took me to read this thread, apparently I could have weathered 13-14 cars. 

Jim

+1   

[chicken45]

So I was at Ester's Hobby in Pittsburgh yesterday and found something called PanPastels. They had a demo in the store and it seemed interesting. I picked up a few. I just looked up their website and saw AS FEATURED IN MR.
ZOMG ITS THE SAME STUFF.
I think I'm going to like them a little more than my Bragdon powders because of the way they streak. I'll get around to using these sometime soon,  but the I'm optimistic. Of course I will use these in conjunction with other techniques for the same reason I don't only airbrush on weathering. Like Shrek, layers. They are a bit costly, $7 a color, and $50 for a set of 9 with a few applicators.

I haven't seen the article but maybe they are trying to show that YOU, JOE EVERYMAN CAN DO THIS, TOO. It's accessible! If it get some guy to go out and get his fingers dirty making his steam grimy, hey, we advance the hobby.