A Recommendation for Weathering from a Friend

Weathering of wagons. I am always on the lookout for simple, and this one fits nicely.

So first up I had to make some tools to help me out.

Materials used:

  18 mm x 18 mm x 75 mm Pine wood (6 pcs)

  6 cm x 15 cm ply which was 6 mm thick (6 pcs)

  1 x 32 mm wood screw (6 pces)

  1 x can of Dy-Mark 325g Frosted Glass Decorative Spray (available from Bunnings at $13.90 a can)

The 18 mm is the critical bit as that very nicely fitted into my N scale Athearn boxcars - tight squeeze, after I removed the running gear of course. The ply I already had around as it was offcuts from a previous job somewhere. So I just cut it into the 15 cm lengths as about right in my mind.

I drilled a hole pretty much centre of each piece of ply - and yes, I even marked the centre by measurement! Might as well do it right I suppose.

I then countersunk one side of each hole and then drilled a smaller diameter hole in one end of each piece of pine. A screwdriver and a few turns of the screw head and they were neatly locked in place.

I now have a half dozen stands to paint boxcars on.

All while this was happening, I had my can of paint soaking in a bucket of quite warm water (washing up temperature at a guess). This thins out the paint a bit and makes it flow a bit better. Every now and then a good shake to mix it all up and by the end of the woodwork, I was ready.

So by spreading out the bottom of the boxcar shell just a tad, they fitted onto the posts I had just made. 

From about 10 or 12 inches away I gave two passes of just one side of each boxcar, starting 6 inches the left of the boxcar and moving the can to about 6 inches past the boxcar. This tries to eliminate sudden surge or splash of paint on the car body. I only did one side as this is a test and I will then be able to compare my work and see how it came out with the unpainted side. Well actually, I have two of each wagon and I'll be doing something else later on as well... you will see.

Stay tuned as I progress with a few more passes and we'll see how it all comes out. I will then do a comparison with sand blasted boxcars (got your attention, haven't I). On the left we have an original boxcar and the right one has the twin coat of paint on it - still not dried properly. Time will tell.

Oh, and by the way, the spray idea has come from a mate - Rob McLear out at Kingaroy. He reckons up to 8 coats or less for various rates of dirtying of the paintwork on your wagons. Just after the two coats so far it has both slightly dulled the paintwork and also added a layout of fine dirt or duct colour - I like it.

So until next time.