Porter in 009: getting dirty...

A good modelling friend commented as I was finishing off the Porter that I'd have to bring myself to make this model a little dirtier than I'm usually used too, they needn't have worried, having been a modern image modeller of British Rail in the post privatisation era I am akin to weathering heavily, to good effect (see lower down this post...)...

So I mentioned the past - here are a few examples of heavily weathered wagons I completed around 2008/2009 if I remember correctly (funnily enough I still own these, as they were my most accomplished work at the time).

The low sided wagon started out life as a bright red Railfreight liveried OCA (I can't remember the exact TOPS code, but I think it was an OCA). I faded this with washes of pinky grey enamel over a few evenings, mixing in some dirty enamel panel washes between coats. The transfers were added over the top as per prototype photos, as they were a bit newer. If you search for OCA on my blog you might find more stuff...

The Sealion was more involved as I hand painted the grafitti based upon prototype photos. The rust patches are quite effective and marvelously simply. Just orange and brown stippled on, left to dry and then stroked downwards over them with a brush just moistened in thinners... anyhow back to the task in hand... the Porter...

First thing to note is it now sports transfers on both sides - these will be toned down a touch when the airbrushed dirt is added next, but they look pretty effective to me and I'm happy with the finish, the backing totally dissappearing thanks to Micro-sol and good quality transfers from Precision Decals. I then sealed them with Testors Dull-cote before starting on making it a bit dirty...

The start of weathering for me is always a wash. The chassis and buffer beams were washed with a thinned coat of Humbrol Matt 98 chocolate, as ususal. I applied this to the sides of the chassis and the underside of the boiler as well.

I applied some thinned Humbrol 64 grey around the base of the water filler and then used a moistened brush to drag this down and streak it down the sides of the saddle tank. This seems to have worked pretty effectively and I'm chuffed that it will add a little variation to an otherwise pretty boring black locomotive.

The final step of this initial weathering was to use Humbrol 53 gun-metal and dry brush the edges of the smokebox, cylinders, footstep, cab window openings, footplate and coupling pockets. This not only highlights the edges lovely, it also gives them a more metallic feel.

So next up will be apply some road dirt and soot with an airbrush, and then fit glazing and a crew - and she just needs a layout to trundle around on! More soon...