wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
Just started to try and weather some cars I picked up recently.
My attempts at weathering
- Thread starter wheeler1963
- Start date
wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
Thank you Alan, Dave. I'll need to get some shots outside in natural light. These are quite washed out to me. I did these with chalks, my next few with be with water based paints.
Last edited:
Photos don't always show the reality, especially taken under artificial light. That boxcar I did looked much more heavily weathered out in the daylight, so I used a 3/4" soft paintbrush to go over it to remove some of the excess powder. To the eye it looks much better now. The guys who do displays on dioramas, always seem to take their pics outside.
wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
Added another one today (3 more needing patched).
wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
3 more out of the shop tonight.
Dry brushing with oils? When I've tried it I tend to forget to wipe off the paint in the brush to a minimum with predictable results.
wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
Acrylics applied with a small brush, then pulled down with a wet brush with a bit of window cleaner on it.
Toot, that's why we have turpentine. If you get too much just wipe it back off with a brush leaded with turpenitne. One hint: get yourself the real turpentine, not the fake stuff. It's expensive, about the same as a good Bourbon or Scotch but well worth it. I've found that sometimes in wiping off excess I actually get better results. Go figure. A few of my best weathering jobs are recovered disasters.
Using any chalks or pastels Jerome? What you're doing looks just fine, and I don't do everything this way but serious weathering for me is usually a mix of three medias. The airbrush is always one of them. I use acrylics, oils, chalk, Pan Pastels, and Prisma Color colored pencils, though not necessarily all of them on any given project.
wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
Alan, I tried chalks with so-so results. I airbrush the bottoms and ends quite a bit.
flyboy2610
Loveably weird
The thing to remember with chalks is that they work best on a surface with a flat finish. A gloss or even satin finish is nearly impossible to get chalks to adhere to. The sealing coats have to be very light.
Most of this was done with gray chalk and very light coats of flat acrylic. Repeat the process to get the effect you want:
Most of this was done with gray chalk and very light coats of flat acrylic. Repeat the process to get the effect you want:
A lot depends on which chalk you use. The pastel sticks from Wal-Mart, etc. don't do me a very good job. I started using the Rembrandt soft pastels. The chalk medium used to make them seems to be denser and not so much blows away when you seal them. They're a bit pricey compared to others but they last a long time. Don't buy sets, just get a few earth tones. Here's a link to a color chart. Scroll down.
https://www.dickblick.com/products/...GrMw3s1rGcjRpZMrLKrWTWn4EJsRRKQRoCGSEQAvD_BwELooks good. Not to be a nit picker but you should really paint that bell bracket!
wheeler1963
Aurora & Portland Owner
For me, adding window cleaner to chalks and making a mix works best. See the ex-CSX car above. Leaves a raised area like flaking rust. The last 3 cars with acrylics doesn't leave that affect. So more experimenting to continue.
