Troublesome Truck Weathering

[JLK2707]

I am just wondering about what colours I should use to weather some of my troublesome trucks. Also, what colours are they weathered in the show? Could you please tell me?

[Narrowgauge111]

depends on the colors of the wagons. For instance, if your wagons are the grey versions with the faces, go with darker greys. If you have them painted black, go with brown or grey . If you have the green wagons, go with light grey/white, but be VERY light with the amount of paint, if you want a dusted effect, if you want them to look older, go a little heavier, and use various colors to weather (grey, black, brown, white, etc.)

[RW James]

I use weathering chalks. I'm not comfortable using paints to weather - harder to undo mistakes. But basically, the colors would be the same.

Just think about what would weather a real wagon. Dirt - various colors of brown, from the bottom up. Loads - oil and tar wagons would have black and brown weathering from the top down -  cattle wagons would have white weathering around the bottom - mineral wagons would have a lot of white for quarry wagons, or black for coal wagons. Rust - a common weathering for all wagons (except milk wagons) which would be an reddish orange near any metal attachment. I do weather my milk wagons with a dirt color, though in reality, these were usually kept pretty clean.

Watch episodes and see how these modelers did it - especially the first few seasons. They were generally pretty realistic. Later episodes seem to be more idealistic.

Passenger coaches would not be weathered - they were kept well washed. The same with the locos - but they would get dirty in use. I will probably weather Percy - "Dirty Percy" you know.

Another thought regarding the mineral wagons (or Troublesome Trucks) - you will see some of them with physical wear - dents and such. A good way to show this is LIGHT and CAREFUL exposure to a soldering iron. For instance, along the top rail of the wagon, a light impression with the iron will show repeated punishment from falling quarry rocks. Or a slight depression from the inside with an iron for a dent. But be careful, this can be easily over-done. And always do this in a well-ventilated space. Burning plastic is toxic.