To weather or not

[RailGooner]

..
I was surprised at how many companies make powders - Peco, Humbrol, DCC concepts and Tamiya to name just 4. What I would like to know is - does anybody have any recommendations as to which is best, especially for someone just dipping his toes in it, so to speak? Is there a good starter kit?
...

I've never used Peco. I like the Humbrol jar - the powder stays in the jar unless I remove some, making for a tidier workspace than most others. DCC Concept powders are very fine - they go everywhere when you're not looking, even with the lid screwed firmly closed. Tamiya are very dry, more a hard paste than a powder - good for working into detail. I use all three for different effect. I often use powders in combination with washes. Sometimes I'll wet down powders with acrylic thinners to make a wash.

The main thing I find with any weathering is to work in short bursts - don't slog away for hours in one session. The best way to imitate nature is to copy it as closely as possible. Real prototype weathering takes time and is built up of many effects (decay, corrosion, damage, fading, dirt and contamination, etc.) over many seasons as stock travels around many regions.


/ADDIT: Aswell as the above three I can recommend MIG, AK Interactive, Zero Paints and a new find Abteilung 502.

[Papyrus]

Many thanks for all the suggestions. The Lifecolor set looks like a good place to start. If I get on all right with it, it will give me the confidence to try some of the other ideas.

Cheers,

Chris

[njee20]

I use the Noch set, because it was cheap! It's good, although lacking an all purpose brown, I end up mixing one from a rusty/brick red and black which works. Can easily make a wash with a drop of water. I agree with Gareth that they can be prone to coming off if you handle an item lots, but I'm fortunate in that I don't really have to handle my stock, so I've left them unsealed!

[Dizz]

I tend to use the Tamiya weathering compact sets A and B applied with the supplied sponge applicator or a cotton bud.  Very easy to apply and blend the colours to achieve desired shading without powder going everywhere.  Also, being slightly greasy the effect is more "robust" and stands up to handling well.

[Chris Morris]

I've never really got on with weathering powders. I just give my diesels and coaches a blast of quit thin weathered black on the roofs so some of the original colour can be seen underneath and frame dirt on the chassis. My memory of most stock is that the sides were pretty clean due to regular trips through the wash plants.

[Newportnobby]

My memory of most stock is that the sides were pretty clean due to regular trips through the wash plants.

I think that really only applies to passenger stock though, Chris.
Parcels stock was always pretty filthy and freight stock just purely disgusting most of the time!
But, then again, I'm talking 1960s.

[Southerngooner]

I think Mick's last comment is actually quite pertinent. If you model BR in the 50's and 60's, or even before those decades, steam will have been the prevalent source of motive power for the railway and coal the prime domestic heating source. As such that would have created a lot of dirty airborne particles than had to land somewhere, and if you didn't clean them off.......well, just look at carriage roofs and goods stock in general.

Once you get to the 70's and beyond you are into much more diesel and electric power, plus gas central heating in houses, so the air is generally cleaner, therefore less to land and make things dirty. That's not to say that diesels and electrics don't get dirty, but it's a different kind of dirt and thus a different kind of weathering.

I bought the Tim Shackleton book on weathering rolling stock and there is only one N gauge specific chapter, in which he opines that in N detailed weathering is less important than the overall effect, which I tend to agree with. I've tried to make mineral wagons look rusty, and paint timber to look like unpainted, but all of this tends to get lost in the bigger picture. If you have  a small layout, and like to take a lot of close up photos then I think you are going to notice detailed weathering a lot more than on a larger layout where there is more to look at.

I've mentioned before my recent use of acrylic paint, immediately rubbed off with a cotton bud, which I find very simple, but what makes it for me is a coat of truly matt varnish after, which really makes it look lifelike to me. You don't normally get a lot of reflection off of a dirty wagon. I have found the Revell acrylic matt sprays to be very good in this respect, up there with Dullcote in my view.

So don't assume all weathering is the same. The best thing is always to try and copy the real thing, not what another modeller has done (unless you can reference that back to the real thing of course!) as what they have done may just be their idea of what it would look like. Having seen some attempts at weathering (and scenery too) I think some people must have very different views of colour which must be part of how the brain and eyes work. That's not a criticism but an observation, as we are all different!

Dave

[njee20]

Totally agree with that last paragraph - most (non-passenger) stock doesn't just get uniformly brown, you get a huge array of weathering patterns depending on all sorts of things; that's before you get into fading, rust etc. It's why Farish's historic tendency to just give a general 'waft of brown' is a shame!

[Nev S]

It's why Farish's historic tendency to just give a general 'waft of brown' is a shame!

I tend to view most factory weathering as a "starting point". One of my worst examples is an early Dapol Hymek. Looks like it's been driven through a muddy puddle! More of a splatter than a "waft".

[martyn]

I've used Town and Country Scenics rust paste, which-I think-does the job.

It comes in two flavours, Dark or Light rust; it's water washable, but dries VERY quickly, so needs to be washed off quickly if not to your satisfaction.

I've also used Humbrol coloured washes; and many years ago, Floquil from the USA. The latter, even if it's still available, dries VERY VERY quickly-nasty thinners!

I've also sometimes used a light wash of Revell 'anthracite' acrylic over factory applied loco black; it tones down the slightly shiny factory finish.

For painting a loco kit, or anything else that's supposed to be black, I prefer to use Railmatch or Phoenix 'weathered black' rather than true black.

Martyn