Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread


Sometimes I don’t know enough when to let things go. I posted this picture before. 2 tankers the top one faded with Pan Pastels white blender. The bottom tanker was to be sprayed with my Tamiya Arcylic custom fade concoction.
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I was using this credited photo as a guide
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How hard could the fade to match the prototype photo be? The pan pastels are great except I picked it up WITHOUT cleaning my fingers or wearing a glove. Fingerprints then appeared after the PP‘s were sealed with a clear coat. Never a good thing.

This morning I sprayed both with my Tamiya fade custom mix that when on fine on the non pan pastel car. Pictures when it is dried. The car I had sealed would have been ok except for a couple fibers now sticking to the car from when it cleaned the body.

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I thought it was fine until I sprayed it and the fibers appeared.

LESSON TIME

#1. always wear gloves when touching the model
#2. triple check the model is clean
#3. if you are in an environment that maybe dusty, cover the model as it dries

Seems my paint booth area that just has open floor beams has occasional dust falling. I didn’t use the dehydrator and that was a mistake

It is break time as I verbally hassle my and I figure out what to do next

Tom
 
Sometimes I don’t know enough when to let things go. I posted this picture before. 2 tankers the top one faded with Pan Pastels white blender. The bottom tanker was to be sprayed with my Tamiya Arcylic custom fade concoction.
View attachment 159368
I was using this credited photo as a guide
View attachment 159369
How hard could the fade to match the prototype photo be? The pan pastels are great except I picked it up WITHOUT cleaning my fingers or wearing a glove. Fingerprints then appeared after the PP‘s were sealed with a clear coat. Never a good thing.

This morning I sprayed both with my Tamiya fade custom mix that when on fine on the non pan pastel car. Pictures when it is dried. The car I had sealed would have been ok except for a couple fibers now sticking to the car from when it cleaned the body.

View attachment 159370I thought it was fine until I sprayed it and the fibers appeared.

LESSON TIME

#1. always wear gloves when touching the model
#2. triple check the model is clean
#3. if you are in an environment that maybe dusty, cover the model as it dries

Seems my paint booth area that just has open floor beams has occasional dust falling. I didn’t use the dehydrator and that was a mistake

It is break time as I verbally hassle my and I figure out what to do next

Tom

My brushes all got contaminated with micro fibres…I think from something that was in my brush container
I bought new brushes, but the oil thinner (Turpenoid) I’m sure is contaminated as well, ..
The jug of T is $30… so I figure I will I will use up that before I go on to toss the brushes…
So now I have to take a critical eye to the paintwork before it’s dry,
Photos are helpful in this..

Maybe sand out the fiber and mask and paint a square black patch over the spot…
 
A friend of mine had 8 tank cars he wanted to part with. Cost me lunch which was about $50. All petroleum car but one (Caustic soda). Another project, I'm going to start with one to see how it's going to turn out. I'll be watching Tom on his tank car progress, I haven't done any tank cars to speak of so I'll have to research pictures for ideas also.
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My brushes all got contaminated with micro fibres…I think from something that was in my brush container
I bought new brushes, but the oil thinner (Turpenoid) I’m sure is contaminated as well, ..
The jug of T is $30… so I figure I will I will use up that before I go on to toss the brushes…
So now I have to take a critical eye to the paintwork before it’s dry,
Photos are helpful in this..

Maybe sand out the fiber and mask and paint a square black patch over the spot…
#5, Thanks for letting me know about contaminated brushes!

I do keep all my brush groups separated. Oil brushes, aryclic brushes, pan pastel and chalk brushes all in their own container. Same with brushes I use for blending. But, I now realize I use the same bottles of cleaner for all brushes. While not the cause of this dilemma it could be an issue down the road.

I have not gone back to the bench yet today but late last night I looked at the smaller fiber bits. I have used in the past a high pressure wash of straight 99% Isopropyl Alcohol to remove weathering shot via the airbrush at 55-65 PSI. But, those were not sealed cars. These 2 cars are sealed! I do have some 1000 grit sanding sticks, that might be easier. I am going to a hockey game this afternoon so when I get back I will look them over.

Yes, I am hiding from these cars but hopefully someone will learn from my mistakes.
 
Modern tankers this morning. Awesome! I spend yesterday fiddling with my transition era tankers. It did reawaken my appreciation for blue box kits. Most are quite serviceable decent models. I fiddled with a couple of mediums. I start with the airbrush and flat finish, then washes, in this case AK Interactive, and then Pan Pastels. The mixture of solid and liquid mediums gives nice texture.

This is my rescue car. I found that using AK's odorless thinner is better. it's not as aggressive as the Xylene I used and doesn't attack paint. I may fiddle with it a little more, but so far, not bad. I think all of these need a little tweaking but as works in progress I'm satisfied with how they're turning out!
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Next up is teh mate. The gasoline tanker. Mostly rush and mud effects here. Note that as MOW cars, there would be pretty grungy!
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By way of comparison, here's one that was airbruished only. No flat coat as it was done at a train show and you can't spray the smelly stuff at those. Note the difference when you don't paint the trucks.
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Here's a good old faithful Athearn triple dome.
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This lion oil company tanker is a favorite of mine. The actual company made industrial coatings. Mostly airbrush with some pan pastels. No washes.
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After these i had worked up enough gumption to try the first Tangent model. It needs some blanding but we're off to a good start. The biggest difficulty with these is keeping the detail intact!

IMG_4215.JPG
 
Modern tankers this morning. Awesome! I spend yesterday fiddling with my transition era tankers. It did reawaken my appreciation for blue box kits. Most are quite serviceable decent models. I fiddled with a couple of mediums. I start with the airbrush and flat finish, then washes, in this case AK Interactive, and then Pan Pastels. The mixture of solid and liquid mediums gives nice texture.

This is my rescue car. I found that using AK's odorless thinner is better. it's not as aggressive as the Xylene I used and doesn't attack paint. I may fiddle with it a little more, but so far, not bad. I think all of these need a little tweaking but as works in progress I'm satisfied with how they're turning out!
View attachment 159498

Next up is teh mate. The gasoline tanker. Mostly rush and mud effects here. Note that as MOW cars, there would be pretty grungy!
View attachment 159500
By way of comparison, here's one that was airbruished only. No flat coat as it was done at a train show and you can't spray the smelly stuff at those. Note the difference when you don't paint the trucks.
View attachment 159501

Here's a good old faithful Athearn triple dome.
View attachment 159502

This lion oil company tanker is a favorite of mine. The actual company made industrial coatings. Mostly airbrush with some pan pastels. No washes.
View attachment 159503

After these i had worked up enough gumption to try the first Tangent model. It needs some blanding but we're off to a good start. The biggest difficulty with these is keeping the detail intact!

View attachment 159504
Looking very nice. Lots of work into these. The Lion Oil Company panels under the dome is exceptional. Really like the trucks on the Texaco car. The rescue car is turning into a great looking unit.

Yes, to the difference in weathered trucks. I take them off the car, pull the wheels, use a turner and then weather them after a dip into 70% Isopropyl Alcohol bath for cleaning. It doesnt take long to disassemble, tune, clean and paint but the difference is always noticeable

thanks for sharing
 
I really like these 2. Just enough flat coat and dust to tell the viewer these cars are in service.
I like the effect as well. There are many ways to fade paint. The Tangent tanker was faded with Gray Pan Pastels. Try fading with gray and see how you like it. I think it's a little more forgiving than white. I also ordered up some primary colors for my Pan Pastel palette. The usual red, blue, yellow green. Great for fading or dulling bright colored cars.
 
I like the effect as well. There are many ways to fade paint. The Tangent tanker was faded with Gray Pan Pastels. Try fading with gray and see how you like it. I think it's a little more forgiving than white. I also ordered up some primary colors for my Pan Pastel palette. The usual red, blue, yellow green. Great for fading or dulling bright colored cars.
I love the PP‘s and when I got back into weathering a few years ago that’s what I 1st purchased. My only issue is when I clear coat them I lose so much of them as they dissolve. When I was using Testors spray can of Dull Cote the PP really disappeared. Using VMS flat clear out of the airbrush is not as aggressive. I only clear coat now if they are a car that might be handled and that is few.

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Old picture showing my Pan Pastels in 4 of the 7 racks of 5 I have.
 
Modern tankers this morning. Awesome! I spend yesterday fiddling with my transition era tankers. It did reawaken my appreciation for blue box kits. Most are quite serviceable decent models. I fiddled with a couple of mediums. I start with the airbrush and flat finish, then washes, in this case AK Interactive, and then Pan Pastels. The mixture of solid and liquid mediums gives nice texture.

This is my rescue car. I found that using AK's odorless thinner is better. it's not as aggressive as the Xylene I used and doesn't attack paint. I may fiddle with it a little more, but so far, not bad. I think all of these need a little tweaking but as works in progress I'm satisfied with how they're turning out!
View attachment 159498

Next up is teh mate. The gasoline tanker. Mostly rush and mud effects here. Note that as MOW cars, there would be pretty grungy!
View attachment 159500
By way of comparison, here's one that was airbruished only. No flat coat as it was done at a train show and you can't spray the smelly stuff at those. Note the difference when you don't paint the trucks.
View attachment 159501

Here's a good old faithful Athearn triple dome.
View attachment 159502

This lion oil company tanker is a favorite of mine. The actual company made industrial coatings. Mostly airbrush with some pan pastels. No washes.
View attachment 159503

After these i had worked up enough gumption to try the first Tangent model. It needs some blanding but we're off to a good start. The biggest difficulty with these is keeping the detail intact!

View attachment 159504
Strange you weathering tankers, saw these and thought "I wonder what TLOC and Espeefan would do with these"

 
Strange you weathering tankers, saw these and thought "I wonder what TLOC and Espeefan would do with these"

They're too new for me. :) I would do a basic fade, some light dirt on the undersides, and possibly a few rust spots. I think one of our club members has this train, but he hasn't brought it out to play in a long time.
 
They're too new for me. :) I would do a basic fade, some light dirt on the undersides, and possibly a few rust spots. I think one of our club members has this train, but he hasn't brought it out to play in a long time.
I quite like these, I was thinking similar as you but with large overspill running down the sides, add some rust too as, they to me, would be hydrochloride tankers not oil.
 
Strange you weathering tankers, saw these and thought "I wonder what TLOC and Espeefan would do with these"

I model 2015 and these cars may not have reached my time frame. But if they had, a hard fade on the tank where the rust wasn’t. Add in some rust pits on the ends and heavily weathered truck frames and wheels. I would need to see some pictures to determine the weathering on the underbody. I have never seen these in real life but these cars have always intrigued me but not enough to buy a set.

photo credit on the photo. Photo date is 1989 from railcarphotos.com
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2013 photo date
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I am unable to quickly locate a photo with the script that Athearn put on their models

It would be a fun one to do.
 
That's the place! Sometimes I go that way to work but there's not a good place to stop and take photos when I do see something.

That place used to be a contract shop and not actually part of Trinity. It was a much smaller operation then.

The two main tracks on the right side of the aerial are the UP Duncan Sub (former Oklahoma Kansas Texas main, nee Rock Island) on the left closest to the highway and serving the Trinity facility, and the BNSF Wichita Falls Sub (former FW&D main) to the right. Another Trinity plant is served by BNSF a couple miles to the south of this location.
 
That's the place! Sometimes I go that way to work but there's not a good place to stop and take photos when I do see something.

That place used to be a contract shop and not actually part of Trinity. It was a much smaller operation then.

The two main tracks on the right side of the aerial are the UP Duncan Sub (former Oklahoma Kansas Texas main, nee Rock Island) on the left closest to the highway and serving the Trinity facility, and the BNSF Wichita Falls Sub (former FW&D main) to the right. Another Trinity plant is served by BNSF a couple miles to the south of this location.
I knew there was another plant in the area. Before I retired I thought of doing a repair facility for tank cars and covered hoppers. I found these 2 plants near Fort Worth. The area from here south and east to I35 would make for some great modern model railroading, especially the big locomotive plant. But the interest stuff to me was inside those structures.
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There are some other facilities in the area that would make a good industry to model. If you go south on I35W at the SE intersection of NE 28th Street and 35W was a plant on a triangular shaped plot of land next to the old joint T&P/MKT line between Fort Worth and Whitesboro (now the UP Choctaw Sub Main 2). This plant constructed many types of cars over the years but I remember seeing covered hoppers more often than not. An old coworker of mine worked here painting railcars before we worked together.

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If you go west along NE 28th Street from here at the point where you've crossed under the Fort Worth & Western and UP Choctaw Sub Main 1 (former FW&D main) but before you reach the UP Duncan Sub (former OKKT nee Rock Island) and BNSF Fort Worth Sub main (former Santa Fe) there is another triangular plot of land south of the street where tank bodies were constructed (and might still be). As far back as I can remember these bodies would be loaded on Trinity's flatbed trailers and hauled by their distinctive mint green Freightliner cabovers north to the Saginaw plant you showed above for assembly into finished cars.

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Another Trinity plant that was a bustling place in the past but seems to be a ghost town now is their Irving Blvd. facility in Dallas just south of Mockingbird Yard. It's on a rectangular plot of land in the center of this image and a spur connects it to the yard lead at the NW corner of the property:

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I don't know how other railcar manufacturers did things, but Trinity seemed to be very decentralized. There were always trucks moving around town with steel shapes, wheels, trucks, tank ends and other components delivering subassemblies from one plant to another. Even if you couldn't recognize the component it was hard to miss their trucks.

I don't think it would take much to model one of these facilities. You could leave the large structures off the edge of the layout or just imply them with background flat versions and keep the spur track and storage tracks leading to the main. At the edge of the facility along the fence you could line up trucks, wheels, and steel shapes. Of course you'll need some flatbed and lowboy trailers to fill in some of the space, and maybe an overhead crane on the spur track for unloading large components like the zoomed in version of the Irving Blvd plant seen here:

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