Weatherng steam locomotives
Dan L. Merkel
Not sure about its quality, but it looks good.
It has an open frame motor which I may change some day, but right now,
my question deals with weathering and "aging" a steam locomotive. The
engine I bought will be at the end of its line when placed in my layout
era, so I need it pretty heavily weathered and definitely showing its
age. In general, what areas would one normally accent with simulated
water and chemical stains, a little rust and general dirt, oil and
grime?
Any thoughts on this would be sincerely appreciated...
dlm
--
Dan L. Merkel
bright.net-BRT
===== > > Your Local Link to the Internet in
Findlay and in Hancock County < < =====
Dave B
the cited author.]
In article <3C8646...@bright.net>, brt...@bright.net says...
> It has an open frame motor which I may change some day, but right now,
> my question deals with weathering and "aging" a steam locomotive. The
> engine I bought will be at the end of its line when placed in my layout
> era, so I need it pretty heavily weathered and definitely showing its
> age. In general, what areas would one normally accent with simulated
> water and chemical stains, a little rust and general dirt, oil and
> grime?
I don't have any general hints, but you might look at the MR issue a few
months ago with the guy who superdetailed the P2K 0-8-0 switcher. I was
just scanning that article yesterday to figure ways to add details and I
was struck by the specific weathering that he used on that model. I
would think that would give you a clue.
Also look at photos of old steam engines and note where steam is leaking
out. Those are good places for water stains.
Finally, not ALL old steam locomotives at the end of their useful lives
were decrepit rust buckets. Many of the older steam on shortlines were
lovingly maintained until the fell apart or the company went under. The
same could be said for the Southern's operating steam locomotives. Look
at color pics of the old 4-6-0's and 2-8-0's serving until the end of
steam on that line. A LOT of them were in pretty good shape. Some even
got new paint a year or less from being scrapped!
> Any thoughts on this would be sincerely appreciated...
I think my thoughts fit into your category :-)
Dave
--
_________________________________________
http://southern-railway.railfan.net/ay/
http://smrf.railfan.net/SMRF/
http://cvrr.railfan.net/cvmrr/
email is David dot Bott at Dartmouth dot edu
Wolf Kirchmeir
>Any thoughts on this would be sincerely appreciated...
I think a search of Model Railroader's on-line index will give you a number
of articles on this topic. I remember one by John Allen back in the 70s IIRC
- showed how he did it. His locos were heavily weathered, as befits machines
used day in day out with hardly enough time for running maintenance... :-)
HTH
-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
Check out our new Unlimited Server. No Download or Time Limits!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! ==-----
Bob May
leaking fittings, dirt kicked up from the roadbed and soot from the stack.
This means that there will be white trails down from things like the
whistle, electric gen. and any other opening like the throttle opening and
blowdowns in the boiler. The soot is basically all flat black coatings on
everything - heavily used locos tended to be flat while fresh engines tended
to be semigloss. The dirt kicked up will make the bottom areas of the loco
a gray or tan color with plumes of color rather than details.
FWIW, I've seen a lot of carictures of weathered locos when the process went
overboard. Only a few roads let their locos go without a wash on occasion
and the full weathering took several months to really get started. I've
seen prototype diesels dirtier than what the basic black of a steamer would
look like.
Another thing is that old steam isn't black anymore but often a dark gray as
the paint would be oxidizing away and that gives a general whitening of the
finish of the loco. Thus, don't use engine black when doing an old loco but
rather use the grimey or weathered black colors as they're a better starting
point.
--
Bob May
Imagine the terrorist's fun when they realize that their 72 "nubile virgins"
are all lesbians and cranky from it being that time of the month!
Daniel A. Mitchell
painted with weathering in mind. A pre-painted 'showroom' finish is
difficult to work with.
A few general comments on weathering:
Materials needed: Paints, thinner, brushes, thin cotton gloves,
tongs/tweezers, sticks.
Materials highly desired: Airbrush, pastel chalks, fine sandpaper, small
stiff old paintbrush.
Disassemble the model, at least the mechanism and major subassemblies.
CLEAN the parts thoroughly with a mild solvent (paint thinner perhaps)
and then a detergent in warm water, followed by a good rinse, and fairly
fast drying in a warm place (to prevent rust to the steel parts). BE
CAREFUL of any plastic parts … some small details, especially brake-shoe
hangers and insulating bushings are often made of plastic and may be
damaged by solvents or excessive heat.
Once the model is cleaned, don’t touch it. The smallest fingerprint will
leave an oily deposit that will interfere with the paint adhesion.
Handle the model only with the gloves, or tweezers, or impale it on a
suitable stick, hang it from a wire or string … just don’t touch it directly.
Since you want a heavily weathered look, the base finish should be flat,
not gloss. If the model's already painted gloss, and you don't want to
start all over again, try coating it with dullcoat as a first step. The
finish needs a little 'tooth' to hold the weathering.
I'll assume the prototype is basically black, or at least gray ... if
not, it's a LOT more difficult to weather bright colors.
If starting from scratch, I'd suggest Floquil 'weathered black' for the
superstructure, and either that or 'grimy black' for the undercarriage.
You always want to start with a base color that's a bit LIGHTER than the
finished shade desired. It's easier to darken a finish than to lighten it.
Once the base coat is on, an advanced OPTIONAL technique, IF you’re
competent with the airbrush, is to spray straight down at the TOP of the
model with a slightly lighter color of the base coat, to create top
‘highlights’. Follow this by spraying straight up at the bottom of the
model to create ‘shadows’. Note that up and down are relative to the
model, it is quite all right to lay it on it’s side while doing this, so
you can spray horizontally. DON’T overdo this … it wants to JUST be
noticeable, not real obvious. The idea here is to have the tops of
things (domes, walkways, cab roof, etc.) be a bit lighter than the base
color, and the undersides of things (cab, walkways, cylinders, etc.) to
be a bit darker. The SIDES should no receive much paint at all from this applicatiuon.
This completed the base coloration.
Next, apply shadows and grime in the recesses. This is done with
‘washes’ … greatly thinned mixtures of DARK color paint. Let your base
coat dry thoroughly before applying a wash over it. If you get in too
much of rush, you could lift or dissolve the base coat, making a real
mess. It’s often a good idea to use a wash consisting of a LESS active
solvent than the thinner for the base paint. This makes it much less
likely you’ll damage the base coat. Example: Use Floquil (a
lacquer/enamel) for the base coat, and an alcohol based acrylic for the
wash. Some also have good lick with India Ink tinned with alcohol and
detergent/water for washes.
Good colors for washes are usually either pure black or very dark browns.
Prepare the wash, and apply it in one of two methods … perhaps both. The
first technique is to just slop the wash over everything. It’ll
naturally migrate to the interior corners, holes, and crevices where
it’s desired. Little will stay on smooth open surfaces. The alternate
method is to just apply the wash in the basic areas it’s desired, again,
the interior corners, holes, and crevices. Apply around rivets, bolts,
and small surface details. When dry, the effect should be to make all
small details stand out from the background by darkening their nearby surrounds.
Whatever, experiment with washes on a junk carbody or such to get a feel
for what you’re doing before drenching the loco. Don’t make the wash too
strong (too much paint/ink) … it’s hard to ‘undo’ these things when you
get carried away. It’s easy to add another coat if you think it needs
more. Be sure to let the wash completely dry (it’ll ‘hide’ in crevices
and such and stay wet for a long time) before handling or continuing to
the next step.
After the washes are REALLY dry, proceed to ‘dry brushing’. For this the
water based acrylic paints work very well. Choose an old fairly stiff
brush (it won’t be any good afterward), perhaps 1/4" wide.
‘Dry brushing’ adds ‘highlights’ to small details (rivets, bolts, sharp
corners, etc.). It is ALWAYS done with a fairly light color .. usually
grays, tans, browns, and sometimes reds. In extreme cases, even white
may be used … SPARINGLY!
Dip a few drops of the paint out on a piece of porous cardboard. The
more soaks in, the better .. you want it to NEARLY dry on the palette.
Take the brush, and wipe up some of the thickened paint. Stroke the
brush on the cardboard until no paint is visibly being deposited on the
cardboard. Now go to the model (again, it’s best to practice on a
guinea-pig first). Gently rub the brush over the model. NO paint should
transfer to the smooth open areas, but a little should appear on the
tope of projections ... like rivets, lightening them slightly but
noticably. Cover the entire model, especially the upper surfaces that
get the most light … remember, you’re artificially enhancing
‘highlights’. Continue until you get the results desired.
All this, to this point, is just ‘bringing out the detail’, the actual
weathering can now commence, again using gentle treatments of washes or
dry brushing, and the airbrush.
Weathering usually consists of chalked paint, grime, soot, and rust.
Look at color photos of real locos that have the effect you want to
duplicate. Common patterns include:
Rust on the firebox sides and smokebox (areas that are too hot to retain
paint). Rust on the tender deck, or down the sides near the deck drains.
Airbrush LIGHTLY with rust reds or yellows, followed by dry brushing
with similar colors
White or light gray boiler compound stains from steam leaks, whistles,
pop valves, etc. These are usually vertical streaks, anywhere that water
runs down the loco jackets. A wash works best here.
Soot on the upper surfaces of the boiler, cab, and tender. The airbrush
is great for such dusty effects (or pastel chalks, see below)
Light tan sand dust on the running gear .. especially on switchers and
pusher locos, using lots of sand for traction at low speeds. The
airbrush is great for such dusty effects (or pastel chalks, see below)
Ash dust and heat fading on the ashpans and trailing truck areas … these
are usually a lighter color. The rear drivers are often affected if they
are beneath the ash pans. The airbrush is great for such dusty effects
(or pastel chalks, see below)
Finally. Pastel chalks are GREAT for dusty effects, some of which were
suggested above. It creates somewhat the same effect as an airbrush
(great if you don’t have an airbrush), but is not identical. BOTH
techniques can be used to good effect.
Choose pastels of ‘earthy’ colors … grays, browns, tans, and reds. Pick
an appropriate one, and grind it on a piece of fine (say, 320 grit)
sandpaper. Create a SMALL pile of ground chalk. Dip an old brush into
the chalk and transfer it to the model. Scrub it into the surface where
you wish the dusty effect to appear. Blow the surplus off. That’s all
that’s needed … except you can’t handle the model in this state without
leaving fingerprints in the dust … looks AWFUL! For a pure display model
that’s NEVER touched, this may be ‘OK’, but not for an operating piece
of equipment. You have to seal the dust down with more dullcoat spray.
SIDE EFFECT … the dullcoat will REDUCE the effect of you dusting to
about 20% of what it looked like before. Let it dry, and apply more in
successive coats until you get what you want. That’s one of the nice
thing about pastels .. it’s hard to overdo it, because much of the
effect goes away when you seal it down. And, until you seal it, you can
always wash it off with a QUICK trip under the faucet followed by a fast
drying (don’t’ overdo the wash-off, or you may remove your dry brushing
etc. as well as the pastel).
Again, PRACTICE on something that’s NOT important. And. One of the good
things about a brass model is that you can always strip it and start
over again if you have to. That’s not always possible on plastic models
… they’re much LESS forgiving.
Good luck!
Dan Mitchell
==========
Daniel A. Mitchell
base coat ... to create the artificial shadows.
Dan Mitchell
==========
><snip>
>
> Once the base coat is on, an advanced OPTIONAL technique, IF you’re
> competent with the airbrush, is to spray straight down at the TOP of the
> model with a slightly lighter color of the base coat, to create top
> ‘highlights’. Follow this by spraying straight up at the bottom of the
> model to create ‘shadows’. <snip>
Dan L. Merkel
>
> I recently "took the plunge" and bought my first brass steam
Thanks for all of the suggestions! Now, I've got to get busy and get
this project moving.
I'll post some pictures when I have something to show.
Dan L. Merkel
>
> I'll post some pictures when I have something to show.
If you are interested, please go to...
...and click on the link for Model Trains
Dave B
> Dan L. Merkel wrote:
> >
> > I'll post some pictures when I have something to show.
> If you are interested, please go to...
>
> www.bright.net/~brtdlm
Nice job! It does look beat, as you said you wanted.
If I may make a suggestion: one thing you might try to do is add a dark
wash in crevices. It could be the photos, but the color of the whole
locomotive appears fairly even gray and it's harder to pick out the
details. Something like a black wash that will only cling in crevices
might help bring out that detail. Then to REALLY call attention to some
details, use a white paint in a drybrush method to add highlights to the
details (rivets, rings, a joints). The loco will still appear overall
dirty and dingy, but the details will jump out at the viewer.