To weather or not

[Newportnobby]

This has a twofold effect.
1. To open a discussion about weathering of models and
2. To show off some more of @mk1gtstu handiwork.

I feel no wagon should be clean, parcels vehicles were generally unwashed while passenger coaches did get washed but I know not how often in the transition era. I seem to recall them being pretty grubby at the time. Stu has already weathered my coal/mineral wagons to within an inch of their lives but check out what he's done with about 25 items of parcels stock (inc full BGs). Wherever possible the buffer shanks are silvered and the buffers 'greased'. The lad has even created 'clean' bits where hands have used door handles and people have wiped a bit of the window. All underframes and wheels dirted. It has also toned down some of the lurid original colours as you will see. I consider myself proud to have some of his work.
A Dapol 'maroon' CCT which was actually salmon pink! Before and after shots.



Farish PLV 374-416 before and after shots



A factory weathered Farish CCT followed by a pristine one weathered by Stu



A pristine Farish GUV 374-130 afterwards


A pristine Farish MK1 BG 374-027A after treatment


and finally a pristine Farish bogie luggage van 374-630 given the works


These are but some of the 25 items I sent to Stu and he fitted them into his already hectic work/workbench schedule long before I expected them back. I'm sure the pics don't do the work justice but the overcast weather has meant reliance on house lighting. A huge thanks, Stu.

[Leon]

Mick, this is excellent weathering. I've only bought a couple or three items that were weathered - with mixed results. I personally think a light application of diluted gray acrylic paint will suffice. I'll get around to testing that assumption one day!

Leon

[Crepello]

The weathering looks great, but why are buffer-shanks ''silvered''?  I can't speak for really-modern stock, but in the BR era, only vehicles with 'Oleo' Pneumatic buffers had silver shanks. Examples include Blue Spot fish. Presflo, HAA and TTA. Locos such as 25,33, 37, 47 and 56 (the ones with round buffers) had them, but it's best to check photographs first.

[Chris Morris]

For me weathering is essential. Stock straight out of the box just looks too "plasticky".  Most of my stock gets a very gentle weathering. If people don't notice my weathering then I reckon I have got it about right.

This is typical.

[GScaleBruce]

Back when many vehicles used cast iron brake blocks, everywhere and everything (certainly on the Southern Region) seemed to have a light patina of rust - and not one that could easily be washed off. While I agree that parcels stock rarely passed through the carriage washer, certainly in BR blue days coaches would (or should) have gone through the washer pretty much every day/night. That said, a carriage washer would only keep a clean coach clean; it wouldn't remove accumulated brake block dust, for example, if a vehicle hadn't been washed for a while.

Almost all my BR stock has been weathered, with the exception of some locos and a newly arrived coach (which will be weathered in due course). I'm not convinced by Farish's factory weathering, but it does at least take off the sheen. Most of my vehicles have been weathered by TMC, but I have had a go at some HEAs myself. I'm reticent, though, partly because I don't have an airbrush and partly because I've seen too much weathering that I don't like... including a couple of vehicles of my own that have ended up, to my taste, seriously over weathered...

[Southerngooner]

I prefer to weather everything, not just stock but scenery, buildings, etc as nothing kept clean in the days of steam. The parcels stuff looks good!

Dave

[Skyline2uk]

I cannot argue that weathered stock is another tick in the box towards a "proper model railway". Some things like Seacows actually drive me mad at how clean they are and how awful the factory interior is.

My problem is threefold:

1) Every piece of stock I own is pristine and therefore I have a hell of a mountain to climb to bring it all in line to a common standard of weathering.

2) I am very fussy about weathering. Mercig can make stuff that is achingly beautiful but 99% of factory weathered stuff (Dapol silver bullets being a notable exception) is horrid to my eyes.

3) Given how rare / expensive some bits can be (aforementioned Dutch Seacows), there is no way I would do it myself. Therefore professionals needed. Therefore expensive.

One day, one day.

Skyline2uk 

[port perran]

I prefer to weather everything, not just stock but scenery, buildings, etc as nothing kept clean in the days of steam. The parcels stuff looks good!

Dave

I have a mix of pristine and weathered (badly by me) stock and locomotives.
I grew up in the early 60s when everything was dirty, tatty, grimy, filthy and run down so that's why I like things on my railways to look that way.
My own attempt at weathering (stock and buildings) is never dirty enough and so, to me, some of the professionally weathered locos/stock look too neatly weathered.
That is in no way meant as a criticism but just the way I see things. I remember grease, grime, soot, rust and broken wagon timbers everywhere with loco numbers difficult to read and name/number plates missing. It was often difficult to tell if a carriage was maroon or green!
So, yes.....I like weathered layouts - the grimier the better.
Cheers
Martin

[njee20]

I quite like a bit of brown on under frames to remove the sheen. Farish's factory 'weathering', consisting of a waft of brown on the whole model looks awful.

I often think about sending some of my rakes off for weathering, but if you use powders and the like it's quite easy to reverse any 'male chicken' (changed by forum) ups with a bit of warm water.

[Southerngooner]

Mixing up two threads here, but it was noted in the Farish 8F thread that a sound chip was over £100. To my mind I'd rather pay someone £50 to weather a loco than add sound. Much better value, but obviously not for all.

Dave

[NGS-PO]

Mixing up two threads here, but it was noted in the Farish 8F thread that a sound chip was over £100. To my mind I'd rather pay someone £50 to weather a loco than add sound. Much better value, but obviously not for all.

Dave

In fairness, it's not the sound chip that is £100. It's the chip, the cost and hassle of gaining access to record the sounds, the wages of said person recording the sounds, and the sequencing and programming of the sounds to work in concert with what the locomotive is doing on the model railway at the time, the seamless transitions between sounds, the testing of it all and adjustment where needed, etc, etc.

In the grand scheme of things I thing an extra £100 is reasonable, and I understand it's cheaper than buying a seperate chip and a seperate sound project and fitting it yourself (it certainly used to be but I haven't checked recently.)  Like just about everything to do with model railways, particularly UK N Gauge, I don't think anyone is getting rich off it, but hopefully someone is making a living from it.

Best

Scott.

[Newportnobby]

So far there's only one forum member I've used to weather a loco as I'd seen pics of his work. I do tend to buy factory weathered locos where offered but agree most are pretty poor, with the best being the Dapol class 22 IMHO. I've had a stab at weathering some Dapol mineral wagons but the results were far below the standards I've seen from others, so wouldn't trust myself on a loco

[N_GaugeModeller]

When done well weathering can certainly add to the look of Locos and Rolling Stock, the problem is with the done well bit, many, myself included don't know when to stop

many end up lust looking like a muddy brush stroke ridden blob.

I learned to weather in my Military modelling days so know if I was to try it would just look like its been dragged from a muddy battle field.

Mind you even I will do it on wagons but Locos and coaches stay as new.

NGM

[honestjudge]

I'm with njee20 on this, as a bit of a dusting with various powders can give a good effect without the permanency. And if you overdo it , it can be easily removed. The only drawback is that it can look somewhat forensic if you haven't cleaned all your finger prints off before application.

[Papyrus]

I think it depends a lot on what era you are modelling, and what type of stock you are trying to weather. If you are modelling the end of steam, say 1945 to 1965, locos were very poorly maintained and there is no such thing as too much weathering. The cabside number might have been given an occasional wipe but that was it. @GScaleBruce is right about coaching stock - coaches got more attention, but the frames were permanently dirty.

I'm no expert but this is my attempt at weathering a renumbered 8f, purchased off the Nporium (thanks, @Newportnobby  ):


Apart from the shiny wheels and motion, which I need to work on a bit more, I feel it looks more authentic than the too-even factory weathering from Farish, as on the WD:


Incidentally, it wasn't till I took a picture of the 8f that I noticed the stray cat-hair attached to the firebox!!

Cheers,

Chris