Weathering practice

[Bendtracker1]

A buddy wanted a Patched Conrail unit and I asked him if I could play with it.

I know there are some obvious mistakes: The wrong car body, the wrong number boards and the lack of detail parts,  but I was going for the weathering of a sun bleached, black unit.

I faded it using a white fade per Gary's formula, then a couple of coats of a grime wash.  The rest are all powders.

[GaryHinshaw]

Cool.  Nice photos and scenery too!  Did you take any shots of the stock model for comparison?  I suspect your friend will be very pleased.

Cheers,
Gary

[nscalemike]

Very nice,  two things drew my attention right away, other than the faded black.  1, the rusty, worn down cab roof and nose, and 2, the trucks and fuel tank.  Both look very well done!   One question though,  is the yellow handrails supposed to be that bright or would some rusty black powder help tone them down to give them the same worn look as the rest of the exterior?  Only asking because I don't know if Conrail would've repainted them while doing the patch work.  I know the old locos that I ususally see the saftey paint is all but worn away. 

I'll second Gary too about the nice scenery!

Mike

[Bendtracker1]

Gary,
You're right, I have a couple of pics after I got it faded, I'll try to get them up tonight. Thanks!

Mike,
The yellow is duller than it looks.  I powdered and toned them down quite a bit,  must have been the lighting that brought it back to life.  I'll go back and darken them some more.  Might try "chipping" and "wearing" the yellow down by dry brushing some black on them.  Then I'll re-powder them a bit.
The "Rusty" cab and nose is what I was hoping for.  Nothing more than surface rust.  In the past I've always seemed to go too far and it ends up looking like a rust bucket.  That's why I only tried powders this time.

I think I'll make some new number boards as well.   My friend didn't care about them or details, but they REALLY do stand out in the pictures!   

The scenery is nothing special, just standard WS products and ME c55 track.  It's a small diorama that I've used before to photograph things on.    But thanks for the comments. 

I need to work on my lighting, the ballast is actually WS buff that I used a grime wash on to darken it a bit.  The light makes it look almost Greenish Blue! 

[Bendtracker1]

Here is the comparison photo.  I sprayed both units with Floquil Engine Black.  The two coats of grime wash toned down the White Fade.

[Bendtracker1]

   One question though,  is the yellow handrails supposed to be that bright or would some rusty black powder help tone them down to give them the same worn look as the rest of the exterior?  Only asking because I don't know if Conrail would've repainted them while doing the patch work.  I know the old locos that I ususally see the saftey paint is all but worn away. 

Mike

OK,
I went back tonight and toned down the handrails and added some chipping.
Then made some number boards and added them.  How's this look?

[nscalemike]

Looking great!  Love the way the handrails looked worn and chipped now!

Mike

[wm3798]

With raggedy PC paint outs, I don't think it's possible to over-weather!
Lee