Willy
Western Thunderer
I have started to weather some of my 7mm stock as follows.
I initially spray painted the wagons using Precision paints - I use an Aztek A470 airbrush - and then left them to dry for few days before applying the transfers. Then using the airbrush I applied very light coats of "dust", "rust" and "grimy black" over the body & chassis just to give it a generally 'dirty' appearance. This spraying was carried out along the sides and ends of the vehicles instead of straight on as for the main coats as this tends to catch the raised parts of the vehicle such as iron work & rivets, etc. and therefore brings out the detail. For this I used Floquil cellulose, which unfortunately, and as far as I know, is no longer available. When this was dry I then applied weathering powders using mainly "rust", "dirty brown" and a "grey", which is actually sold as eye make-up for the ladies, and indeed in this "enlightened" age I should say for men as well!
I had already painted & lettered the GW open in the dark grey livery when I changed my mind and decided to paint it in BR livery. However when I tried to remove the paint I found that it was very difficult and put it to one side to have another go later. Then when I looked at it again I thought that I could make used of the partly removed livery and I felt that the remains of the old GW lettering didn't look out of place.
As for the smaller GW open with the tunnel inspection platform; I now intend to 'patch paint' that with a 'faded Gulf Red', just on the planking to the left. This is to represent a vehicle that is in Engineers use but it is not worth a full repaint. I scratch-built the platform on this wagon using wood. I didn't use specific dimensions but instead I built it to fit this particular wagon (Coopercraft) and it is based on the one fitted to the ex LMS wagon on page 45 of Robert Hendry's excellent book, "British Railway Goods wagons in colour",
I have learnt that although at first they looked fine to the naked eye, when I took the photos and viewed them in full resolution, the looked awful so I have had to tone them down a bit.
So, any advice on further progress would be greatly appreciated as would critical comment on what I have already done.
Cheers,
Willy
I initially spray painted the wagons using Precision paints - I use an Aztek A470 airbrush - and then left them to dry for few days before applying the transfers. Then using the airbrush I applied very light coats of "dust", "rust" and "grimy black" over the body & chassis just to give it a generally 'dirty' appearance. This spraying was carried out along the sides and ends of the vehicles instead of straight on as for the main coats as this tends to catch the raised parts of the vehicle such as iron work & rivets, etc. and therefore brings out the detail. For this I used Floquil cellulose, which unfortunately, and as far as I know, is no longer available. When this was dry I then applied weathering powders using mainly "rust", "dirty brown" and a "grey", which is actually sold as eye make-up for the ladies, and indeed in this "enlightened" age I should say for men as well!
I had already painted & lettered the GW open in the dark grey livery when I changed my mind and decided to paint it in BR livery. However when I tried to remove the paint I found that it was very difficult and put it to one side to have another go later. Then when I looked at it again I thought that I could make used of the partly removed livery and I felt that the remains of the old GW lettering didn't look out of place.
As for the smaller GW open with the tunnel inspection platform; I now intend to 'patch paint' that with a 'faded Gulf Red', just on the planking to the left. This is to represent a vehicle that is in Engineers use but it is not worth a full repaint. I scratch-built the platform on this wagon using wood. I didn't use specific dimensions but instead I built it to fit this particular wagon (Coopercraft) and it is based on the one fitted to the ex LMS wagon on page 45 of Robert Hendry's excellent book, "British Railway Goods wagons in colour",
I have learnt that although at first they looked fine to the naked eye, when I took the photos and viewed them in full resolution, the looked awful so I have had to tone them down a bit.
So, any advice on further progress would be greatly appreciated as would critical comment on what I have already done.
Cheers,
Willy
very nicely weathered 
