The art of smaller subtlety (N part 29)...

A big challenge when working in N is keeping things subtle, be that structure modelling, scenery or weathering (another challenge is photographing the results!)...

This pair of Farish PCA cement wagons are another step on the N gauge adventure, and a follow up, a second part if you will to my 'The art of subtlety' post which applied to weathering paler tank wagons in H0 scale. I've been studying photos of the PCA wagons in use, and it appears that they're often relatively clean, especial yin the Speedlink era I'm trying to recreate. I understand, from Nigel Burkin's book on modelling 'modern' wagons that this is because of strict controls on dust release during loading, combined with regular cleaning, meaning the build up is much less noticeable. In fact, it appears that actually they really only get dirty along  the lower sides from thrown up dirt that is then washed and streaked down with the rain. Nigel also mentioned something which as soon as you see it, you can't miss it, and that is the grease used on the hatches gets dark quickly leading to a build up of gunge in this area.

But how to represent this all in miniature, on models only about 5cm long! For 11137 I applied a tiny amount of the wash I used on the chassis along the lower body seam, and then used a wide flat brush to wipe this UP (yes up!) the sides. This ended up very subtle indeed, but it is noticeable over a clean example... for 10683 (which has blue circle markings on one side - the other I removed) I used an airbrush to apply the dirt along the lower tank side (whilst weathering  the 00 Pannier earlier in the week). This applied a lot more 'paint' and so the streaks are much more noticeable. A quick touch of 33/98 used on the chassis to the roof hatches added some 'grease' to these areas...

The result? I'm happy this offers a good match to the prototype, but I still feel these wagons need a little more to lift their finish, perhaps I will take some photos on Paxton Road though before going too much further. This N scale project is about using ready to run models without major modification and weathering with an artistic rather than detailed approach - I feel what I've achieved so far probably ticks these boxes, and goes to show how difficult it is to replicate these subtle finishes in the smaller scale, especially with paler coloured models, just as it is in the larger scale.

Until next time, more soon...