Weathered HUOs for Pont-y-dulais...

My rake (!) of three Accurascale HUOs have been a fixture on Pont-y-dulais since I began the project, looking far too clean, but weathering them was well down the 'to do' list. However, a few weeks ago Accurascale posted a 'how to' by Mick Bonwick on weathering them and, in my professional capacity I thought I'd give this a try...

However, I didn't manage to follow the guidance for long before studying photos and reverting to my preferred technqiue. Mick suggested sealing the models first with dull-cote, to give the weathering something to stick to - I'd already done this some time ago, when I applied the Planet Industrials transfers, so it has had plenty of time to dry. The first step was to study some photos, so I found the originals on Paul Bartlett's site, and paid for a few to study close up to get a feel for how the dirt had collected on them. I decided that I'd not go for such an extreme weathering as depicted on the prototype, but something to add life based on some of the other BR examples was useful.

I mixed my usual favoured weathering colours, Humbrol matt 33 (black) and 98 (chocolate) and thinned this down to a wash before using it on the chassis and lower body framing. Turning the wagon upside down, this was then encouraged to flow, by capillary action, along the bodyside ribs and along the top edge. Finally a wash was applied to the inside of the wagon, a little thicker, and worked in a way to look like coal had slid down on emptying by brushing vertically on the sides, and along the hopper chutes. As Mick suggested, I left this to dry for about 30 minutes before using a straight flat edged Games Workshop brush, originally sold as a 'BASE L' it's past it's best for that purpose but has come in handy for weathering. I moistened it in white spirit and began working on the sides, brushing vertically and creating streaks on the panel from the dirt, frequently cleaning the brush on kitchen roll. The lower, angled sides were 'messed up' with the same brush in more of a scrubbing action, and the model was left to dry.

After an hour or so the enamel paint has hardened enough to allow gentle handling, and I dry brushed gunmetal 53 along the chassis details and body ribs, and touching in the lever ends with white paint before leaving this to dry for a few hours whilst getting on with other jobs. 

The next, and final (for now) stage was to use the airbrush to add some road dirt and coal dust. I utilised my usual Martyn Welch technique, mixing Metalcote 27004 with satin brown 133 and a dark grey (I use matt 245 as Tarmac is no longer in the range). This tones the wash and dry brush together very nicely, softening the edges and adding some depth to the finish. I don't believe, no matter what others say, that its possible to do this without an airbrush.

If you read Mick's excellent tutorial you will find he used pigments too, I've struggled to get on with these, finding their use a little problematic apart from adding texture and shadow on underframes and using a dusty colour on larger scale models as spilt sand, but I should probably look again. I think my approach has produced a good result, and goes to show that we should never stop learning, or trying out others techniques and ideas in our own work. 

You'll also notice that all three wagons are different. One thing I abhor is weathering that is formulaic rather than unique. Nature is not repetitive, and each wagon will have subtle differences that can only be achieved by handling each wagon in turn. I applied the wash to each wagon in it's entirety before moving on to the next, rather than doing them as a batch. This way you create variety without having to over think it. I hope it's encouraged you to have a go, it might be old, but Martyn Welch's book, 'The Art of Weathering' is still my bible for this - even though these days a lot of our art is influenced by military modellers. Enjoy your work and in the meantime, more soon...