Weathering a Ready-to-Run reefer model.

[WoundedBear]

Hi guys. I thought today I'd share one of my methods for weathering a Ready-to-Run model and making it look like she's got some miles on her. This started out as a Roundhouse 40 foot wooden reefer model. I'm pretty much going to walk you through the steps, one by one, that I use to age my models. So firstly, here we go with the raw model, fresh outta the box. Shiny, huh? lolol



First step I do is to pick out a few individual boards with three shades of paint. Grays and earth tones work as do browns and reds. You want to pick out a few boards here and there and lightly paint them. The scribe lines help to guide the brush, but don't sweat a few small smears on adjacent boards. I used a Hull Red, Leather and Earth Brown for the three shades.







Then, using a medium dark rust color, I give a hint of color to all the hardware and hinges.



Once that is done, the next step is to add some rust. I used Testor's enamel stain to do this, but you could make your own from thinner and any dull yellow paint you have on hand. Use a wide brush, and lightly flood the area with stain. Do one horizontal surface at a time. To get a proper effect, the washes/stains need to be applied quickly and with as few brush strokes as possible. Once the whole surface is wet, leave it alone to dry for an hour or so. Then stand the car up and do the end panels. The results are bright rust highlights in random areas.






Then run a black wash down the "metal grate" roofwalk to emphasize the grid pattern.

[WoundedBear]

With some color now on the body, I give the underside a bit of lovin' as well. Again, I'm no rivet counter, so no superdetailing under here. The trucks started out black, so all I did was dust them with a rattle can of red primer. By lightly dusting the paint on, shadows will automatically appear. Don't go heavy here. A little masking tape to cover the bolster pivot points, and I use toothpicks as axles while I paint. This gives me somewhere to grip the truck, but it also masks the journal box at the same time.

I brush paint my wheelsets with a medium brown kinda color........again, the specific color name isn't important. A quick spin in my fingers and the wheel faces are painted and not a speck on the axle ends. Once the faces dry, do the wheel backs and axles. If you're careful with brush stroke angles, masking of the wheel sets is not needed.





The car bottom and frame were black from the factory, so I dusted them with red primer first, then followed that with a misting of Krylon camo earth color. The idea here is to achieve a mottled appearance....all three colors need to show a bit.



Now I start with more washes. These next few steps really help tone down some of the garish coloring and ties the whole thing together. I first hit the car body with a coat of Testor's dullcote. Once that has set for no more than an hour or so, I give the car a wash down with a mix of India ink and Isopropyl alcohol. This tends to react with the dullcoat, and results in a chalky appearance. For light effect, I use about 30% isopropyl.....heavier effects can demand 60% or better. Only the car's wooden sides got the alky wash. The chalky effect can be seen in the photo of the still drying alky wash.



The alky mix will darken the panel lines somewhat, but to me they were not defined enough, and the whole car still needed a toning down. Out came a 5:2 mix of water and black craft paint. The entire model got a flooding of this mix, one surface at a time. Be sure to keep your work horizontal to eliminate any pooling of the washes as they dry. As the black wash dries, it becomes dead flat and evens all those different tones out.





The final steps involve a bit of touch up painting with a fine brush, and a bit of drybrushing around the hardware and some edges to bring out a few highlights and define some shapes. Here's a couple of shots of the finished model. Too bad the build date on it is about ten years too new for my layout. Ah, well.....twas good practice anyways. So there it goes......off of my layout and into oblivion.....lol. Maybe it will appear somewhere again soon.









Hope ya liked my little tutorial. I'm not trying to preach a method.....I'm not saying other methods are wrong. All I'm trying to do is show you guys one method that has worked for me.

Enjoy!

Sid

[Trainman203]

Nice job, Sid .

I have seen models of wood sheathed cars with individual boards weathered with colored art pencils instead of paint, with similar results to yours. Flat car decks can be done the same way.

I bought some of those pencils but so far am chicken to try them.  

[jbrock27]

Great stuff!
Thank you Sid.