A dirty quartet for Paxton Road (N part 33)...

Earlier in the week I shared photos of Defiance, my N gauge Class 50 that had been weathered, in the same session I'd been working on some more wagons for Paxton Road...

Observing the prototype in photos, and also how generally things weather in real life is a lot of the art of bringing models to life - to me, almost as equal is picking the right colours. These might not appear, initially, to be 'correct' but it is how they sit on the model, sit against other models and appear under layout lighting that matters in this type of work. Kicking things off then, here is a cement wagon - yes, this is N scale, what a wonderful piece of tooling from Bachmann for their Graham Farish range! Anyhow, if you look at cement wagons they're often actually quite clean and devoid of cement staining or build up - this shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose, because this would quickly get out of hand.

Talking you though the basic processes that have resulted in this finish - first, a wash of Humbrol 98/33 on the chassis and around the fillers and roof walks, as well as along the bottom edges of the body. This was streaked and cleaned off the bodywork with a piece of kitchen roll. Once dry, I used Humbrol 28 to add some fading to the whole wagon, and then Humbrol 245 around the top of the wagon and the hatches, as well as a light spray over the under frame. These two last colours were then 'removed' with a wide flat brush moistened with thinners.

Second, a pair of Farish TTA - these were kept pretty clean by Ciba Geigy in the period I'm modelling, but the resin did sometimes lead to a staining along the tank sides. Humbrol 98/33 wash was used the chassis, and along the lower sides of the tank. I used Humbrol 62 to spray lightly over the centre of the tanks, and removed this in a vertical motion using the same approach as the cement tank.

These pair show the difference in age of the model, - the roof walk way and ladder are much cruder than the PCA, and really, I ought to look at replacing these.

Finally, let's take a look at the flag ship of my fleet - certainly in terms of it's cost! £50 is a lot to spend on a secondhand model - but they're sought after models that are not currently in the range - as a result, I consider it money well spent!

These large private owner wagons were used on china clay traffic in the 1980s and one was an obvious choice for my project. The weathering followed exactly the same approach as above, just over a larger area. The chassis and bogies really came to life with a wash of 33/98 which added some much needed shadow in the trucks and toned the 'toy like' finish out of the box right down.

Once dry I began on the body, the same colours used initially to give an overall wash that was removed in a vertical rubbing motion, and left neat on the ends and walkway. Hardning over night the next day I used Humbrol 62, 28 and 245 in three passes to build up some colour and tonal variation across the sides of the model. This all looked too uniform and flat, so the wide flat thinner moistened brush was used again.

The result softly blends some of these colours but leaves a really subtle finish that suits the prototype and matches the sort of rain streaked weathering I observed on prototype photos. Yes, some were dirtier, but I do wonder if N scale actually suits a lighter touch, one with a balance or artistic flair with subtle restraint. It is a skill that I'm enjoying playing with and I've noticed it's improving my work in the larger scales. Not only that, these wagons now all feel part of the modelled scene, rather than toys within it. Until next time, more soon...

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