Sunday 27 March 2011

Weathering Locomotives

Hi all,

For my first blog I have some locomotive photos taken on the Bowen Creek layout.

The weathering is a mix of washes and powders. On almost all my models, the weathering is done in this manner. When weathering, I rarely use an airbrush. The washes and powders technique gives greater control than an air brush, and allows you to target smaller areas of the model.

I feel that even with the best double action airbrush, the models just look over weathered. However I still use an airbrush for exhaust, soot, and under body grime in small, thin doses!

For my next blog, I'll take a look at a "44" class with extreme weathering, using a very interesting technique. Until then, I hope sharing my photo's with you all, assists in your weathering ideas.

Deano




Sunday 20 March 2011

Weathering Vans

Hi all,

In this blog we will take a look at both wooden and steel vans.

When weathering wooden rolling stock I try to simulate the gray aged timber, rusty bolts, and steel frame work. I find this easy to do on large planks of wood as found on say, a cattle wagon, but the small louvres on NSW vans can be a real challenge! For this I use gray pencils and dry brushing, as pictured below.




The following steel van with the graffiti earned me an equal first place in the On Track models weathering competition. The competition rules were that one of the their louvre van models were to be used.

The On Track team informed me it was a very hard decision and in the end could not pick between my entry, and that of Justin Moy. They therefore awarded both of us equal first place.





The following photo is of a Banana Van as often seen in the late 80's, transporting bananas from the far north coast of NSW to the Sydney markets.






Most louvre vans finished life in a poor and rusty state. The van below has seen better days!





Our last van is a refrigerated van. Ice would be filled in though the hatches on the top. This practice had well and truly stopped in the years that I am modeling (the 80's). However, I have been told some of these vans were still in service as box vans for items such as fruit.




That's all for now. I'll feature locomotives for my next blog. So stay tuned, and thanks for visiting.

Deano

Saturday 19 March 2011

Introduction to weathering

Hi all,

Firstly I'd like to show you some hoppers that I have weathered.
In many real life examples, wagons are rarely the same when it comes to rust and weathering. Some may stay relatively unscathed, whilst others seem to deteriorate considerably.
Obviously, those working close to the sea will always rust. Those working inland tend not to rust as much, however the hot unforgiving Australian sun fades the paint. Please note, what the wagons carry will always play a part in weathering your models!
An example would be the difference in weathering a cement hopper, as opposed to a wheat hopper. The cement hopper often has a crusty layer of dried cement, whilst the wheat hopper has a fine layer of dust.

Here are some examples:








Some more examples:

These photos were taken on Andrew Campbell and Ian Millard's Bowen Creek Proto87 layout. This was on display at the 2010 New England convention. Many thanks to Ian and Andrew, for the privilege of using their layout as a backdrop for my work. It brought great realism to the models.








The last photo is of a V/Line hopper. Note the different weathering of the wagon. These brown stains are common amongst the yellow VR and V/Line hoppers of the Victorian rail system.




In closing my first post on this blog I'd like to say thank you for viewing it, and hope you have been inspired to try some weathering. Next blog, I'll post up some some weathered vans.

Later - Deano