This section contains information on adding details to locomotives and rolling stock.
There are lots of good ideas on how to make your locomotives dirty, and your
rolling stock banged up. However there is not any information on adding specific
prototypical details to match the real thing. Although I may get around to that
someday, that level of detail is beyond my skills and interests at this point. Such
a subject is worthy of a site of it's own, so if any of y'all are into that sort of
thing....
General Detailing
A little weathering can go a long way towards turning a cheap looking toy locomotive
into a 
model that you'll be proud to have on your layout. There are two basic
methods of weathering; paints and washes and chalks. I tend to go back and forth between
them, both can produce very realistic results. I tend to use chalks on my better
locomotives, the ones that I really don't want to ruin. It takes longer to achieve a
similar effect using chalk, but it has the great virtue of being washable if you screw up.
The model at right was done using paints and washes, but I ended up doing it twice (with a
complete paint strip in between attempts) before I was happy with the result.
You start the same way no matter which technique you are using. First remove the model
shell from the frame, and make sure it is clean. Then paint as much small detail
(whistles, bells, straps, etc) as you feel like. Let this dry, them put a little bit of
black wash (see Paints and Washes) into the grills/fans to give a
greater appearance of depth. Let this dry also.
At this point it depends which technique you are using.
Chalk
Lay on a light coat of rust colored chalk, or fine rust
powder, and spray this with Dullcote. Expect most of the chalk effect to disappear under
the Dullcote. Repeat this process until the model looks almost as rusty as you want it to
be in the end.
Now start mixing in very dark chalk with your rust. One or two coats of this is usually
enough. As a final coat hit it with a coat of dust colored chalk, and your model should
resemble a prototype workhorse that has earned its keep out in the weather.
Paint
Spray the model with a light coat of rust colored paint. A little bit of controlled
splattering does not look bad, but don't let it get out of control. Let his dry, and apply
a couple of alternating washes of black and rust until you achieve the effect your want.
let this dry, and apply a final dust colored was coat. Seal the whole thing with Dullcote.
when it dries, and you got a pretty good looking model.
- Paint with Grimy Black / Roof Brown
- Apply a rust wash
- Raint rust on outer wheels
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A Prototype Truck |
Generally one of two effects occur on the prototype; either the lettering starts to
run, or it rusts or peels away.
Rusted Lettering:
Use a fine brush to paint a dark rust color dirctly on the lettering. You may have to
use a couple of coats to achieve the desired effect.
Running:
Drybrush the color of the lettering down the car side below the lettering. Below is a
mediocre example of this (it was my first try), I have seen others that looked very
realistic.
In the steam and early diesal era, boxcars usually had roofs painted with the body
color, or sometimes black. Many reefers had silver or other light-color roofs to reflect
light. Most modern boxcars have galvanized steel roofs. These tend to have the paint
peel off of them over time, revealing the steel underneath. A small dollop or silver
paint on the roof, with a somewhat irregular edge, comes pretty close to duplicating this.
Try using a piece of wire to daub on spots of rust paint. Let dry a little & then
lightly brush down to simulate rust running down the sides. Use a single strand of
stranded wire.
On most releases the ladders, latches, and most external hardware are painted body
color, thus hiding these fine details. On the prototype, these items are frequently paintd
black. Use a fine felt-tip marking pen to "draw" the hardware on the car.
It’s a lot easier than painting.
Freight cars are periodically reweighed, with the new capacity and weight data
restenceled on the car. To recreate this on the model just mask over capacity data before
weathering
Occasionally doors are replaced. Recreate this by masking over the door prior to
weathering. Add scratches to the car body.
Materials
- Flat Car
- Fine N Scale Products Random Wood Load
- 1 point Form-a-Line graphic art tape
- ACC (super glue)
Prep
- The lumber is a resin cast product, so work in a well ventilated area.
- Lightly sand the bottom of each stack to remove flash. There are eight stacks in each
package use two, four stack halves to load a 40’ or 50’ flatcar.
- Weather the flat car, including the visible portion of the deck
Stain
Resin is very easy to stain. Choose the type of wood based upon the geography of where
the load originated. Use one of the following stains, adjusting mixture to suit. Brush
onto stack lengthwise, if you make a mistake brush it off with thinner, dry thoroughly and
try it again. Soak brush thoroughly and dab it onto the end. Use enough thinner to darken
all detail on the stack evenly.
Pine or White Fir
1 part Roof Brown
1 part Rail Brown
4 parts thinner
Douglas Fir
2 parts Roof Brown
1 part Boxcar Red
4 parts thinner
Redwood
1 part Roof Brown
1 part Boxcar Red
1 part thinner
(a bit darker will simulate Mahogany or Walnut)
Build
Assemble four stained stacks into 2x2 half-load. Select the best looking stacks for the
top. From the scale 4x4 cut three sleepers (the boards under the stack) 1" long. Use
ACC sparingly to attack stack one to one end of the three 4x4’s
Note:
If you're modeling dried modern lumber you may want to put a seal on the ends of the
boards. LIGHTLY brush on red, blue, or green paint. Try to get the color on the ends of
the boards only.
- rough up deck with coarse sandpaper (med. for n scale?)
- Paint deck grimy black
- drybrush
- follow with washes of black and various grays and browns
- seal each layer of weathering with dullcote
- Finish with light airbrush dusting of grimy black
Roof hatches are frequently different colors
For grain carriers glue a small amount of turf to the top to simulate sprouting grain.
This is just a few organized notes on how to paint rust onto models with surfaces
representing metal. It will work on boxcars, hoppers, any rolling stock, structures, etc.
I have used the example of a plastic Mine kit sheathed in corrugated steel sheets for most
of the examples. A few others have been thrown in as well. Hope you find it helpful.
Age and weathering factor heavily into how much rust to apply. New buildings and railcars
will have less rust and brighter paint. Older ones will be moderately rusty. Decrepit
models? Well, go to town. In this example we'll talk about a mine kit, moderately old. The
older the mine the more rust you'll see. Operations like this used corrugated metal as
sheathing because all they cared about was keeping the machinery inside dry - mostly dry.
Generally panels were left to age and rust without a care, and only replaced (if ever)
when a leak threatened a valuable piece of machinery inside.
Build up rust on horizontal or close to horizontal surfaces more than on vertical
surfaces, because the rainwater tends to stay on them longer. Corrugated panels tend to
rust vertically from the drip edges up, and along edges.
One method I love to use, and find the most effective in representing rust is to paint the
entire model a rust color. Spray on various shades of brown/orange/red colors, varied from
place to place. Wait for it to dry. Then dab on rubber cement with a semi-fine brush along
edges and spots where you want the rust to show through the most. Be careful, at this
stage a little less is more later. Then paint the model in the actual color it supposed to
be painted. Be sure to apply any decals or painted-on signs before
the next step. Paint all trim as well. A general dusting for weathering can
be made at this time also. For our mine lets assume a grey / metal color? Anyway, after
the grey coat dries, use a x-acto knife to pick off the rubber cement (Or a pencil eraser
works nicely too, just keep the motion the same as the water runoff path) to reveal the
rusty edges and spots underneath. This if a great effect and is very realistic. Practice
with the rubber cement and brush will yield very impressive results.
But wait, we're not through yet! Now, using a q-tip or fine brush that is lightly damp
with thinner, touch the swab to the rusty paint and pull a streak down from the rusty
spot, using less pressure as your brush / swab falls down the side of the model. What this
will do is simulate the streaks of rust that appear below rusty areas, as the rust stains
the panels below. You can also do this sparingly in the upward direction on corrugated
metal, but do so less often and with lighter pressure. This looks really sharp, but be
careful not to overdo it! Practice on something else first to learn no to pull off too
much rust paint from the model. If you do - its no biggie. Just touch up the rusty area
with a fine brush and thin rust-color paint (it ain't supposed to look smooth, right?)
Also, the pencil eraser can be used to 'wear down' the paint on most corrugated panels,
getting them to show a wee bit of rust starting up. Just draw the eraser vertically down
the panels until a bit of the gray is worn off, just starting to show the rust color
underneath. Again, a little less is more here. This can also be done on railcar models to
'dull' the paint and even show some rusty patina on a steel panel. Very convincing on
ribbed-sided hopper or box cars, where you don't want to remove the paint around the ribs
anyway.
If there are any exposed boltheads, or rivets that might show signs of scraped paint,
these should be touched up with rust and streaked down. Very sparingly on the rivets!
(This method works well on grain elevators and coaling towers too).
To really contrast against the rusty panels on our mine, mask off and paint a few metal
panels in the fresh gray color. then weather them very lightly to simulate repaired panels
put in place not too long ago. This really lends a prototypical appearance to an active
building.
Another fun thing to do is to draw a razor blade along the side of a boxcar where the door
might scrape the paint horizontally as it is opened and closed. A defined scrape mark or
marks, highlighted with a few light rust streaks vertically, can really look nice. Also
run light streaks of rust down from ladder joints, the door guides, anyplace where
rainwater would collect and pool.
Most weathering should be done before the rusting shown here, as the rust stains tend to
be new with each rainstorm. This should be the last step before sealing your model with a
dull clear coat.
I hope you have fun trying out these techniques!
Craig Bisgeier
Copyright Craig Bisgeier cbisgeier@juno.com
(Used with authors permission)
(Craig's home page at The
Housatonic RR has some excellent layout design references. It is well worth the
trip.)