Weathering
Posted September 27th, 2008 by johnchicI am not a train collector. Yes I accumulate model trains, but I do not collect for the sake of collecting. I acquire pieces that have personal interest to me. Mostly the roads that served the Youngstown, Ohio area: The Erie/Erie Lackawanna, The New York Central, the B&O, the Pennsy and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (P&LE) and in more modern times Amtrak (although limited and now discontinued). Also I am an operator, which means I run my trains. I don’t keep them in boxes on the shelf. Since I am after realism on my layout I weather my trains. Engines and cars didn’t stay clean and shiny very long on the prototypes and they don’t on my layout either. Yes I know that doing this devalues my trains but I don’t care. As soon as I get a new piece of equipment home I get my airbrush and pastel chalks out and set to work. I first spray the piece with Testors Dull-Cote to take the shine off and then begin to brush on pastel chalk dust in shades of brown, gray and or black and rust to simulate light weathering, or spray on shades of the same with the airbrush to achieve a more heavy application. The whole piece is then coated with the Dull-Cote again to seal everything.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.