A friend asked if I had some magic approach to weathering freight car roofs. In particular, he was interested in failure of the paint and car cement on galvanized roofs.
The picture above was taken in 1936 shown a string of 36′ boxcars with major failure of roof paint.
I reached out to Lee Turner on how he does it. He sent me an email with his approach to creating this effect. The following text and pictures are from Lee.
I’ll start with a near complete failure. Mask and paint the entire roof, spray with the galvanized color (mixing instructions below) Take some of the leftover mix and add a couple drops of black, just enough to make a slightly darker shade. Take an irregular hunk of sponge foam (like brass is packed in) and dip it in the darker shade, wipe most of the paint off like you were dry brushing and then lightly tap the foam on the roof being careful to turn the sponge and vary the pressure. This gives the roof the mottled appearance of exposed galvanized metal. The next step is to brush a dark gray along the rib seams and around the roof ribs being very random, mother nature doesn’t like regimented weathering. Also don’t cover anything completely leave plenty of open spaces. Then go back with a very slightly darker shade of the sides and randomly paint splotches of remaining paint on the roof ribs and under the running board and even some along the eaves anywhere there is an edge, fold or seam. Use a fine brush. Usually for a complete paint failure it could take 15 or more years on the prototype in which time the rest of the car may have been repainted so you can spray just a little body color overspray around the perimeter of the roof.
For just some light peeling I would take the galvanized mixture and a fine tooth brush and freehand paint chips starting in the center of panels over the roof which should be painted body color. With a thin dark paint, airbrush along each rib to give the impression that the car cement is starting to bleed though.
The galvanized color is half model master gull gray and half Testors Model master acrylic “steel’. Galvanized steel should be a light gray with just a hint of metallic.
A final word on painting random patterns. Your mind will want to organize as you go along so its a good idea to do this while watching TV or something else to draw your mind away from the task at hand.
Thank you Lee for adding to our understanding of weathering railroad equipment.
There are a few other techniques that can used for creating a similar effect. I was talking to Jim Zwernemann today and he reminded me of a technique that he has used. Apply rubber cement to the roof in dabs before applying the top coat. Remove the rubber cement by rubbing the area with your finger. I used hair spray to distress the roof of this venerable Chooch kit.
Rock salt can be applied to a slightly dampened roof. Apply top coat and then rub to remove the rock salt.
You can use Vallejo chipping fluid applied before the final color. Lee demonstrated this technique very well on this MTH three-rail plow.
In the near term, I will compile a list of weathering techniques that Lee Turner has been kind enough to share with us. I am amazed at the number of postings that Lee has provided us.
Thanks for stopping by,
Gene
