Wagons off to TMC for weathering

[chuffinghell]

Well I've thought long and hard about it and I've finally decided to send all twenty-three of my wagons to TMC to be weathered

 

It would have been 24 but I had a go myself and it didn’t go too well so I'm going to let the experts loose on them

 

Chris

Edited July 13, 2018 by chuffinghell

[chuffinghell]

And the cupboard was bare.....

[chuffinghell]

They are in the hands of the postie now on their way to TMC

 

I'm a little apprehensive if the truth be known, especially as its my whole collection of wagons but "he who dares wins Rodney"

[SRman]

There is a bit of an art to weathering, but the only way to get better at it is to practice. I recommend finding (or even buying) some very cheap wagons to use for this practice before trying with the more expensive (and personally valuable) examples.

[chuffinghell]

There is a bit of an art to weathering, but the only way to get better at it is to practice. I recommend finding (or even buying) some very cheap wagons to use for this practice before trying with the more expensive (and personally valuable) examples.

 

There is definitely an art to it

 

luckily the one I had a play with was second hand one that I can live without so I won't loose any sleep over making a complete pigs ear of it

 

I'm not one to give up easily so I will do as you and others have sugested

 

Chris

[SRman]

The other thing is, if you do make a mess of it, just repaint it as new then start again.

[Metr0Land]

Not sure if you used acrylics or enamels, but you could try the appropriate thinners on a cotton bud and gently wipe the paint off.  May take 2 or 3 goes depending.  This would give you more confidence in feeling you can retrieve situations and also means I'm now confident at buying some 2nd hand attempts where I feel I can do better by getting something cheaply and breathing a bit of life into it.  Do give up too easily!

[njee20]

Powders are your friend here. Screwed it up? 30 seconds with some water and you're back to new again!

[Mick Bonwick]

Had you thought of putting the money, spent on getting somebody else to do it, towards a course that will teach you how to do all your own weathering in the future?

[chuffinghell]

Had you thought of putting the money, spent on getting somebody else to do it, towards a course that will teach you how to do all your own weathering in the future?

I hadn’t to be honest

 

I’ve see courses advertised somewhere that looked good value for money but the travel and accommodation costs put me off

Edited July 13, 2018 by chuffinghell

[57xx]

There's always some good books and DVDs available too.

[Pinehill]

I hadn’t to be honest

I’ve see courses advertised somewhere that looked good value for money but the travel and accommodation costs put me off

I can thoroughly recommend the Missenden Abbey weathering course. A great weekend amongst fellow modellers & you will learn a lot.

Good value & not too far from Stafford really.

Cheers.

[Martin S-C]

Chuffinghell, in late January I was where you are now. I had a vast collection of wagons to be weathered and selected about 4 or 5 of the most well-known weathering companies and sent off between 12 and 20 wagons to each. In one case I sent them off in February (this company was the slowest - got them back in late June). Most of them took weeks. When I got them back, to be honest, some wagons were great, others I thought were so-so and a few I thought were downright poor. The styles all varied as well which was another factor. I thought air-brushes were over-used by a couple of companies. It was also a VERY expensive fact-finding mission. I was determined that I could do this just as well and so began to experiment on some £5 cheapies I'd picked up on e-Bay. The results of my first attempts encouraged me:

These were done in mid-May.

 

 

 

 

 

I used Ammo Mig acrylics and small brushes, and tried a mix of wet, wet-ish and dry-brush techniques.

 

I admit I have built kits, painted and weathered before but these were wargaming models, mostly WWII tanks, trucks, etc and there is quite a difference between how a military vehicle weathers and how a railway vehicle does, so a fair bit of this was new territory to me.

I then simply pushed on, trying new things and soaking up information on forums and Facebook groups. I bought some acrylic washes in black and sepia then some weathering powders in black, earth, rust and light dust colours.

 

These were weathered in early-June:

 

 

 

Here's an early attempt with a sepia wash then a dry-brush over the top:

 

 

This was my first attempt to make a gunge using paint mixed with weathering powders. It's a bit scary and over-done but I used a brown weathering powder on the solebar and drawbar and really liked the effect - easier than dry-brusing and to my eye, more realistic than air-brushing.

 

 

 

My first attempt at trying to obliterate the paintwork on a quarry wagon that is being worked to the end of it's life, This was achieved entirely with weathering powders used over a basic treatment of a cocktail stick tip to scrape off much of the livery and a new plank or two painted on in Mig acrylic "new wood" colour, then my usual (by now) wash-n-wipe in a track dirt colour:

 

 

Here we are at mid-July trying to create very dusty quarry wagons:

 

 

 

 

Eventually a couple of weeks ago I tried out a simple speed-method. This took about 20 mins per wagon, excluding drying time.

 

1) A mix of black, tyre-grey and dark rust red is wet(tish) brushed over the solebar and everything below it, including drawbar, buffers, couplings, tyres, wheel spokes, etc.

 

2) The same colour watered down quite a lot is washed over sides and ends with a wide flat brush. While still wet, wipe off with damp tissue or cotton bud passed vertically downwards. For coal wagons add a bit more black to the mix.

 

3) Open wagon interiors are painted with a mix of tyre-grey and sandy brown. I use a very nice Mig colour from their military range called "faded Sinai grey". Its a very subtle pale dull mustard yellow. I find this a tremendously useful colour for dirty wood tones. This same mix, with more of the sandy-brown added to lighten it, is dry brushed over the interior to lift the plank and strapping detail. For coal wagons a black weathering powder is slooshed around the inside with a large soft brush. You can sloosh the weathering powder around as carefully or aggressively as you like and using a lightly or heavily loaded brush depending on how dirty you want the wagon interior to be. For my stone and quarry wagons a dust-coloured weathering powder is brushed around the inside.
 

4) The sandy brown colour is dry brushed downwards lightly over the exterior to hint at sun faded paint and to highlight chains, ironwork, etc. You can go over this several times using progressively more pale grey or white in the mix. I use about three layers on my dusty quarry wagons.

 

This method uses only 5 colours and 3 brushes. I've done 8 wagons in a day before this way and I'll probably stick with this for most of the basic freight rolling stock and deal with about 10% by adding fiddly bits and extra details and effects. Here and there on some wagons I add rust weathering powders around some metalwork and on brake pads and dry-brush black to represent grease to axle boxes and the main brake pivot.

 

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't say these are exhibition-quality results but I like them and since I have a lot of wagons to do and I can justify the quick time taken (and the lack of cost) I think its just worth having a go. As others have said, get hold of a cheap wreck at a swapmeet or on e-Bay and experiment.

 

 

 

 

[57xx]

You've done a very nice job on those Martin. The quarry wagon with the new plank is very well executed,  a lot of people get that wrong, either missing parts of the plank near the door or spilling over onto neighbouring planks.

[chuffinghell]

It is strange that this post has been resurrected today as my wagons are due to be delivered back from TMC this very afternoon

Edited July 26, 2018 by chuffinghell

[Martin S-C]

Would be interested to see pics of their work. I quite like how TMC does their wagons - most of the time, and I have found that if they are not to your liking they will change it around to suit. Their after sales service is excellent. I know their work is not to everyone's taste though.

[chuffinghell]

Would be interested to see pics of their work. I quite like how TMC does their wagons - most of the time, and I have found that if they are not to your liking they will change it around to suit. Their after sales service is excellent. I know their work is not to everyone's taste though.

I'll post up some photos later this evening

 

Although I gave in and had my wagons weathered by TMC I'm still proud of the job I did renumbering them all myself:-

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135329-first-attempt-at-renumbering-all-my-wagons/

Edited July 26, 2018 by chuffinghell