I've started getting dirty!

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, everybody

This weekend, I finally started getting dirty.

(weathering, that is).

Up to now, I was afraid.  Thx to fellow friends on the online boards, who pushed me to start - I hate and love you guys.

Because now, of course, the whole fleet needs to be weathered, the modeling must now
go to the next level, the Unitrack needs something......
 Also, I can see my required time investment has just expanded geometrically.........    This is fun.  

Here's a couple of my first efforts, all done with Bragdon Enterprises Weathering System.

A boxcar:



Of course, I realize what's happening - now that the car is weathered, the bulky plastic
roofwalks and grab irons need replacing, the Unitrack doesn't look right and future layouts
will need detailed track ........ (descending into the Dark Side of the Force....).

Here's a LifeLike UP SD7, weathered with 'soot' and the trucks painted grimy black:  



It's a huge improvement, here's the before shot (the other side of the loco, which I
haven't done, for comparision purposes):




I also notice that photographing weathered equipment has it's own challenges and skills to
earn, as lighting can tend to wash out subtle weathering.    

Ah well, what's a few weeks, months, or years in this hobby?

Thanks for getting me started, guys!

====================

Take care.

[pbrooks]

Wow!

That SD looks SO much better with weathering...

You're avoiding a major pitfall that I fell into, which was to go overboard on the weathering at first. You can usually add more, but it's hard to take off!

Great job, John!

all the best,
-Phil Brooks

[GonzoCRFan]

You can usually add more, but it's hard to take off!

I've had decent luck with 71% isopropyl alcohol to remove water-based weathering.

[tom mann]

John:

Welcome aboard.  You'll find that weathering is one of the more aspects of the hobby and you'll pick up new skills.  Your first attempts are very subtle - so you're off to a good start already.  Much better than my "1000 shades of rust" first attempts

I've also noticed that photography is trickier with weathering.  I've had luck with taking photos outdoors, or going for a slightly darker photo and adjusting the levels in photoshop.

[atsf_arizona]

pbrooks and tom mann,

Thx for the comments.

Actually, the UP SD7 is the *2nd* loco that I tried to weather.

The first one, a LL Great Northern SD7, has so much soot on it that you can hardly see the 'GN' anymore.  

Like everyone else, I am learning that 'a little soot goes a long way'!.

Good tips, Tom, in the past I've taken my model photos slightly overexposed.   I'll try what you suggest.

Will continue to participate in this weathering forum here.  A whole new world.  Actually fires me up quite a lot.  (smile)

[Warbonnet Fan]

Nice work John, it's great to see you here.

You made an interesting comment about the Purina box car...now you are looking at the roofwalk, other details, etc.  Once you take these steps to the darkside, forever will you be a prototypical modeler.  Kinda like the blue pill / red pill Matrix dilemma...

The locomotive's appearance is greatly improved, ditto Phil's comments that if you are erring at all, it is on the side of caution, which is wise.  That tells me you will be successful...

enthusiasm+willingness to try new things+good, constructive criticism = success!

[randgust]

One thing that you can do now that's easy in comparison to the 'old days' is to photograph your work to check it.  Often, perceptions are completely wrong until you see it through a lens.  Some of my better efforts I thought looked horrible, until I looked at pictures and went 'wow....', and some things I thought looked great really needed more work.

One more thing I'd toss in is that you can always add more touches later.  I'm adding some chalk soot touches to stuff I put washes on decades ago.

[atsf_arizona]

Status update:  starting working on ballasting the Kato Unitrack.  Here's shot of the initial weathering project UP SD7 sitting on ballasted Unitrack.



(pardon the cRapido coupler which of course rather ruins the view!)

More to come as ballasting and weathering slowly proceed in parallel......

[John]

That looks real good John ....

[3rdrail]

That ballasting looks realy, really good, John. Impossible to tell that's Unitrack.    

[atsf_arizona]

Thx for the comments on the ballasting.  Yes, I'm working on it.....  one
of next projects will be to use some washes to tone down the initial Santa Fe
northern Arizona - style ballast experiments.   Santa Fe used a somewhat
unique pinkish color in Northern Arizona - the following is my first attempt, using
Arizona Rock and Mineral's approximation of that ballast.

(the track and rail was painted first using my standard Roof Brown with a few drops of
Grimy Black):







(This was done using standard ballasting techniques, i.e. good soaking pre-wet of the
ballast, followed by 50/50 Elmer's Glue/water mixture, both applied with eyedropper).

I'll continue to play around with the color, weathering it further, etc.  
The whole Kato Unitrack layout eventually will be ballasted. (it's only 4' x 4').

[fulltritty]

John, I want to tell you that yours is one of the best weathering of Unitrak that I have ever seen. I'm really not a fan of Unitrak for permanant layouts, but you have proven that it can be done and look like real track instead of a plastic toy. Keep up the great work!

[atsf_arizona]

I'm continuing work on getting dirty.

(Weathering, that is).

I've completed weathering this stock Atlas Southern Pacific SD9E.  
The shell is done with Bragdon Enterprises Weathering System, light
dust over everything, heavier along the lower sill;  light soot around
the exhaust stacks.  



The trucks are painted Grimy Black, with a thin wash of PollyScale
acrylic 'Earth' applied to simulate dust.  

I purposely avoid the use of Bragdon Enterprises Weathering System on the
trucks, as I've found that at least for me, the very fine dust always
seems to find its way into the truck's axles and introduces unwanted
friction.

For comparision, here's a weathered vs. unweathered view;  weathered on the
left, stock out of the box on the right.



My intent is to go for a well-maintained yet realistically used look, no
grunge jobs (yet).  By intent, the weathering is supposed to be subtle;  I
want my little engines to feel well cared for, and not to be too dirty.

Suggestions?  Comments?

This is fun! (and a bit time-consuming.  No rushing allowed here).

I want to thank my friends on the Atlas Forum (Randgust in particular), who
thankfully have prodded me into starting this worthy weathering endeavor.
Now, my whole fleet will eventually get the weathering treatment, slowly,
one by one.

My next attempt will be to find an acceptable paint mix to simulate the
weathered, slightly black Blomberg freight B-B trucks that are on my Santa Fe
B-B freight units. The PollyScale Grimy Black above works great for SP's grey
painted trucks, however, in my opinion, it's too gray for the dusty black Santa
Fe freight loco trucks.  More experimentation to come .... any suggestions?

(smile)

[John]

My intent is to go for a well-maintained yet realistically used look, no
grunge jobs (yet). By intent, the weathering is supposed to be subtle; I
want my little engines to feel well cared for, and not to be too dirty.

If that is your goal, you need to switch to a different railroad .. SP definately does not fit into the category you described above

[atsf_arizona]

John, you're absolutely right. SP didn't have 'clean' locos    .