My first weathered vehicle!

[Dave V]

I've never tried to weather a road vehicle before.  This is an HO scale Classic Metal Wheel Works 1941 Chevy flatbed truck.  Weathering was primarily with Vajello washes.  The flatbed was painted with Rustoleum Camoflauge Khaki, then washed and drybrushed.

[CRL]

Really good on the truck body & chassis. The bed could use some rust & dirt.

[Dave V]

Really good on the truck body & chassis. The bed could use some rust & dirt.

Dirt, yep.  Can do.  Rust on a wood bed though?

[Dave V]

This was what it looked like out of the box:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[wazzou]

I'm confused though.  If you're modeling '38-45, this truck would be fairly new, no?
I think it's supposed to be a 1941 model.

[Dave V]

I'm confused though.  If you're modeling '38-45, this truck would be fairly new, no?
I think it's supposed to be a 1941 model.

Don't be confused.  It is a '41, but I wanted to weather it anyway.

[CRL]

Dirt, yep.  Can do.  Rust on a wood bed though?

Sure, rusty metal carried on a wood deck leaves lots rust on a wood flatbed along with dirt. Plus bolts & nails rust fairly quickly when exposed to the elements.

[ednadolski]

Sure, rusty metal carried on a wood deck leaves lots rust on a wood flatbed along with dirt. Plus bolts & nails rust fairly quickly when exposed to the elements.

Would be good to see a proto pic.  Definitely different pattern from the typical patches & streaks that we commonly put on our freight cars.

Ed

[davefoxx]

Even a ‘41 is going to weather quickly in an area with little to paved roads.

DFF

[Dave V]

Even a ‘41 is going to weather quickly in an area with little to paved roads.

DFF

This, and at 8,000+ feet the UV is really, really hard on vehicle paint.  Anyone in Colorado will tell you that even modern car finishes age more rapidly up here, let alone the old stuff.  I'm assuming this vehicle spends most of its time outdoors.  Winters in the high country are long and wet, but frequented with very bright, sunny (but cold) days with intense UV.

[davefoxx]

Wow, I hadn’t considered the thinner atmosphere offering less UV protection, but that makes sense.  Life ain’t so bad for those of us down here near the tidewaters.

DFF

[ednadolski]

I hadn’t considered the thinner atmosphere offering less UV protection, but that makes sense.

Something like 40% stronger at 5000 feet, compared to sea level.   Don't skimp on the sunscreen

Ed

[Dave V]

Something like 40% stronger at 5000 feet, compared to sea level.   Don't skimp on the sunscreen

Ed

For a passenger on a train at Lizard Head Pass, almost a third of the Earth's atmosphere by mass lies below him.  And for a miner atop one of the 14ers along the RGS, that ends up being more than 40%.

I live at a measly 6,700 feet above sea level.  By Colorado standards not impressive, but for perspective my basement model railroad sits more than 400 feet higher than the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  And yet 7,410 vertical feet separate me from the summit of Pike Peak just a few miles away.  The "verticality" of the landscape here is part of what makes it so appealing for model railroaders.  And, after a few years (I've lived here 7 and a half) you get so used to the mountains that when presented with any other terrain it's jarring...  Pennsylvania--for example--seems as flat to me now when I visit as did Florida or Nebraska when I first lived there.

[davefoxx]

Haha!  My layout, at approximately 315 feet above sea level, isn’t even as high as your layout is above Mt. Washington.  Ah, life as a flat lander.  At least I’m not a flat earther. 

DFF

[narrowminded]

I like it, Dave.   And it doesn't take long around an industrial site with mostly mud and dust everywhere, on and off site, for a vehicle to start looking a bit haggard.  A few years could easily do what you did.