Canadian Pacific 50ft Box Weathering...

This Walthers model was bought probably around 20 years ago, a nice crisp moulding, a contemporary model and paint scheme at the time, Canadian Pacific acquired this series of cars second (or even third hand), certainly they look to be ex-Seaboard (backed up here)...

It had never been weathered, only assembled, and whereas the recently acquired Kadee CN box car has lots of separately applied details, this is all moulded on. That isn't a massive problem where the mouldings are crisp, as this case. The light colour was actually putting me off a little, as there isn't anywhere to hide with streaks and stains on a light background, but over the past few weeks I've worked and re-worked it (it's appeared half finished on a Friday update) to get to where we are today.

The basic technique went as follows... mix Humbrol 33 with a touch of orange 46, and make quite a dark brown mix and wash this over the side, a third at a time (i.e. one side of the door, the door, the other side of the door) so that the wash doesn't dry. Using a clean piece of kitchen towel wipe most of this off in a vertical motion, top to bottom. This allows some residue to remain as well as streaking lightly around the panel markings. Once dry use some of the same colours, now a touch more orange, and paint on the rust patterns you see in the prototype (always work from a prototype photo). Dampen a flat edged brush with thinners, dry this off, and then wipe vertically to drag some of the colour down as if dragged over time by water. If necessary then re-touch the rust patch, with a tiny bit more orange this time.

Extra washes and patches are added around the bottom of the door, door runners etc. On the ends a blacker mix is used. The roof is a different technique. I found a picture of an unpainted galvanised roof, of a similar style, and painted on the rust patches with the same mix of 33/64. Once nearly dry this was dragged from side to side with a flat brush. When dry I used a brown wash all over to tie the finish together, and to collect in the creases and edges of the panels. 

The finishing touch was applied with an airbrush. I use a mix of Humbrol 133, 245 (equal parts) to 27004 (two parts). This gives a warm dirty look, apply on the chassis and bogie sides, spray up the ends from underneath where the wheels are, and then give a dusting over the roof. Finally a very light spray all over to tie the finish together.

I need to just use a tiny bit of gunmetal 53 dry brushed over the bogies now to finish it off, but that will wait until I have the paint out for a customer model. It goes to show that if you use a consistent palette of colour, basic techniques and follow prototype photos you can achieve a great finish on older models, certainly bringing them up to 'layout' standard. Now, that brings us to the next project... a layout...

However, before I get too lost in that world again I've got a CN cylindrical hopper and box car to weather, and an undecorated Kato GP35 should be on the way to re-work as an ex-CP unit in shoreline service. More on the Canadian adventure soon...