Commission: Wagon weathering in OO...

"All brought nicely to life". That quote from my customer pretty much sums this post up, and I'm almost inclined to let the pictures do the talking...

Previously I've offered my customer a pretty much 'standard' weathering service for his 'Renfrew' rolling stock but this time these items needed a little more specific and unique attention for various reasons. I will walk through each in turn, touching on the variation to my usual 'economy' process, and why these bespoke finished really do help out of the box models come to life!

First up, the humble 16t. This example represents one that been re-bodied mid life, and lost the hinged upper door. Painted in pale grey, including the chassis, it looked far to neat out of the box. Work began with the usual wash, wiped off vertically, and then micro painting rust along some of the edges to match prototype photos. The interior was treated to a rusty mix of Humbrol 33, 62 and 53. Once dry I airbrushed on the usual blend, but whilst this was 'going off' I dragged a flat brush, moistened (saturated, then dried off on a kitchen roll) vertically to add some more streaking. The subtle finish really pops and these cruel closeups show how effective the streaking is - the last step was to dry brush some gun metal along the edges to add some subtle highlighting.

These Dapol Grampus are from two different batches of wagons, one with grease one with roller bearing axle boxes. I have followed a similar set of steps as above, although this time the chassis, which are unpainted plastic, have been painted a matt dark brown (98/33 mix) first. The bodies were washed and wiped off and interiors painted with a 98/33 mix before being set aside to dry. A wash of neat 98 was used as a panel line wash to hi light the door hinges and a mix of 98 and 64 were stippled inside the body to represent spoil loads previously removed. A dusting of the usual 27004/133/245 mix blended this all together and dry brushed gunmetal 53 picked out the edges of the door bangers and such.

This van started out as an old Airfix body on a new Bachmann chassis that had been weathered. I repainted this with 98/33 to tone things down as a base. The body was then detailed with new roof vents and end brake hoses and a touch in of the paintwork. There followed the usual methods, washed with dirt, airbrushed, dry brushed etc - this time though a white pencil crayon has been used to represent some old and some new chalk marks. 

"Beautiful! Love the chalk marks! Murray & Son had a private siding somewhere in the Renfrew area, receiving parcel and sundries traffic for onward delivery in the greater Glasgow area by their small fleet of vans".

Next up, a steel open from Bachmann. This has been weathered based upon prototype photos supplied by my customer - but I'm only guessing here, but a cement or lime load has been it's semi regular traffic for sometime. The real wagon was a lot whiter than this, but I didn't want it to look too much of a caricature. The usual approach, but using matt 28 (not white, never use neat black or white in weathering, or painting for that matter) for the load. This was applied 'wet' inside and on the top edges and dry brushed on the upper surfaces of the outer.

These wagons will soon be earning their keep and by applying some enamel paint we've taken out of the box toys and transformed them into miniature models of real wagons. They help bring the scene to life, and when you're only operating a small layout, such as Renfrew, this specific work really helps lift the layout. The consistent palette of colours used on the layout and across all the weathering I've undertaken for it really do work well together. If you've got some box fresh models you'd like me to breathe some life into then do get in touch for a personal proposal. Until next time, more soon...