The Weathering Depot

I recently was given two HO scale cars to do for a local modeler. This client models modern day, which means plenty of rust and grime on an older boxcar and plenty of graffiti. The second car I was asked to weather is a Cargill hopper.

This modeler requested plenty of grime and graffiti on the BKTY boxcar, but just dirt and grime on the hopper. He also requested to leave the patchwork already on the primed for grime Athearn car, and to leave all the lettering to where it was visible. A little challenging considering all the grime and graffiti, but doable!

I worked on the Cargill hopper first, since it was going to be a quicker weathering job. The hopper of course started out bright yellow. The first thing done was to dirty the car up, thus being done with an overspray plus washes. All the usual areas were weathered including my “texture weathering” on the underside and car ends. Light rust was added here and there to the car. The wash applied was streaked down the sides to simulate dirt running down the sides of the car. Photos of the completed car are here:

Next up was the BKTY boxcar. This car took longer as it had several layers of weathering. First up was to tone down the glossy look of the car with an overspray of rust colored acrylic paint, thus after patching/taping over the patches.

Next came the application of severe rust on the car sides. This was done with diluted rust texture followed by dabbing rust Pan Pastels over the wet rust texture, then blending it down the car ribs. The same technique was done to the car doors as well:

I then worked on the car ends, again using the same technique, plus using straight rust texture on the brake wheel, followed by rust powder on top while still wet. This gives the appearance of a rusty brake wheel:

Next up was the roof of the car. This was over sprayed with rust, then a wash dabbed on with stiff bristled brush, followed by powder on top of the wash, followed by rust texture being dabbed on here and there.

Small rust spots were then added to the car here and there with finally a brown wash being applied to the patched areas to tone them down:

Last but not least, I added graffiti decals from MicroScale to finish the car. Of course the underside, trucks, and wheels were also painted and weathered. The client did not want the couplers touched. Here is the finished car, ready to roll: