Final weathering

 

I don't normally weather garden railway models. Not sure why, perhaps I'm hoping that this will occur naturally, even though it doesn't.

The flat wagons definitely need some toning down though, so it's out with the weathering powders.

A stiff brush is required to really work the powder into the balsa planks, and I like to introduce a bit of variety into the colours. It's not difficult, and makes a huge difference to the final look of these little wagons. 

Some lead flashing under the floors, and the wagons are ready for the track. I think I might fit couplings as shown on Monday, but these will look nice behind one of my locos. We just need a brake van to complete the set.

Weathering an N gauge loco

Simple and pragmatic. A bit like me.

Weathering the Dublo Scammell

The Scammell weathering turned out to be a lot more involved than that for the VW. 

For a start, while the trailer is screw assembly, the tractor is all rivets, so much work with the drill to get the thing apart. 

The glazing was particularly difficult to remove. Eventually, I just broke it up in the cab since I planned to replace it anyway. 

After a spray of matt varnish, and being left to dry for a couple of days, work started with a bit of dry brushing. Humbrol 25, let down with some 147, proved to be a nice soft shade to match the original paint, just highlighting the detail and making the model look worn. 67 did the same for all the black areas. 

Then it was powder time. The plan had been to dust the model, then wipe it down and finally, dust a little more. In the mostly plastic trailer, this worked perfectly. 

The tractor though - well, wiping down with water caused the varnish to lift away. Obviously, it didn't like sticking to the really smooth paint on the metal. Eventually, I wiped it all off, set the model aside to dry and then shot some of my precious Dullcote on it. 

Running out of time, the model was warmed on a radiator for a few minutes and then powdered dry. Lots of brushing, but no water. The result is a dirtier tractor than trailer, but not unreasonably so. 

Reassembly involved superglue followed by Glue'n'glaze glazing. The result isn't bad. OK, it's not the amazing weathering possible if you have lots of time. I didn't, but sat on a layout, it will look fine, and upset the collectors.

 

Weathering the Dublo VW

A show deadline persuades me to stop messing around and get this "valuable collectable" properly ruined. Or improved, depending on your point of view.

A single cross-head screw is all that holds the chassis in place. The glazing is held in with a rivet, so I ground that away with a fat drill bit. 

Nice to see we have a full microbus interior. Since you can't see it in the van, it makes sense for Oxford not to do another moulding. Pity the steering wheel is on the wrong side though!

Around the window edges, I filled in the gap between the chrome moulding and the glass with some black paint. It looks better than the yellow body colour appearing where no yellow should be visible. 

After that, a dusting with weathering powders was followed by a wipe with a damp cloth to make the powder slushy and get it into the crevasses. I didn't want this van too mucky, just to look like a working vehicle. 

After that, a glazing with Deluxe Glue'n'Glaze and the model is ready for service.

New look Humbrol weathering powders

  

The nice people at Hornby recently sent me some of their new-look weathering powders to use in my projects. I understand that there has been a change in supplier and also, more importantly, in the packaging. 

Gone is the thin-necked glass jar, and in comes proper pots with wide lids. Much easier to use as you can pull the powder out of the pot with one of their Stipple brushes (I really like these) and then use it from the lids, even mixing it up in there. It's less messy than the bottles, although I still wouldn't work over your best tablecloth!

There are new colours too with light and dark rust in addition to the iron oxide. 

Sticking power seems to be about the same as the old mix. I happily threw them at some standard wagons and the powder didn't fall off the sides. I don't bother sealing it as varnish changes the colour of the weathering. OK, lots of handling will wear the powder away, but largely from those areas that would be less mucky anyway - it will still be in those nooks and crannies. 

Good stuff. 

Rusty bridge sides

 

A bit of gap filling on the high-level rail line. Using some Wills Vari-girder bridge components, fairly heavily hacked around, I've joined the bridge parapet to the canal bridge at last. 

There's some very heavy hairspray weathering going on as I wanted something very rusty, so nearly all the topcoats has been scrubbed off. It took a lot of toothbrush work though, possibly because I left the hairspray for a few days and it over-hardened. I do like this technique though. Even with limited skill, the results look (to my eye anyway) great. 

I'm now thinking the canal bridge side needs to move a bit so it doesn't stick out as far, but that's for another day.

Beginners Barclay

 

This little Barclay is built from a DJH Beginners whitemetal kit. It was a Hornby magazine project that was nearly a complete disaster. 

Not the build - that went very well. The reason this isn't the cheapest kit in the world is because a lot of R&D has gone into making it easy. Some cheaper kits achieve their price point by dumping lots of fettling on the modeller. Fine for me, bad for a beginner who hasn't earned their bodger stripes. 

The problem cam when I painted it. As I recall, the deadline was looming (they always are) and I weathered the model in the spray booth. In my enthusiasm, I overdid it massively. 

Tentatively, I attacked it with turps soaked cotton buds to see if I could remove the filth and try again. The result amazed me. As the paint cam off, it left what I considered one of my best weathering jobs. Dirty, but with the paint showing though.

 

At the time I was just relieved, but since then, the "dirt then cleaning" method has become standard for me. I usually add a bit more dirt afterwards to good effect. 

Would I have developed the technique without things going wrong? Maybe. Martyn Welch covers it in The Art of Weathering, but there's nothing to beat actually trying something to prove to yourself that it works. 

And I bet some people think mag writers get things right all the time!

Video: Hairspray weathering