Railgon weathering


When Arrowhead Models came out with their Railgon gondolas I picked up a pair to add to my car fleet as these were fairly new in my era and when you are modelling a mining and smelting operation you can never have enough gondolas.  These were also the most expensive freight cars in my fleet; they were purchased direct from Arrowhead so factor in exchange rate, shipping and brokerage costs. 

I have been slowly weathering my freight car fleet to get the "look" I envision.  I approached weathering these cars with some trepidation. I didn't want to screw up something worth that kind of money.  I looked at a lot of photos of prototype gondola photos, a few with overhead views of the interiors.  There is a lot of variation between cars depending on their age, general use and how roughly they are treated.

These cars were built in 1980 so would have been fairly new in my 1981-83 timeframe.  I didn't want to beat them to within an inch of their lives, but they needed to show some hard use.  Gondolas don't lead easy lives to say the least.  

I decided to give the interiors of the cars a rust overspray with a couple of different weathering effects to show different uses.  Both cars got a "custom" mix of various rust and brown Vallejo paints.  

This was followed with a variety of Pan Pastels to get variable rust on the sides and floor on GONX 330139.  I airbrushed a light coat of road grime on the sides, ends and underframe of the car as well.  It didn't get much side damage.

GONX 330116 got an application of Vallejo Game Effects dry rust on the interior using a sponge to apply the rust.  It dries with a nice texture that replicates a coat of surface rust.  I also applies a bit of the dry rust to the ribs and edges of the car.  Very light road dust on the trucks and sides completed this car.  Overall having just a bit of texture on these cars really makes them look like workaday equipment.  







Comments

Post a Comment

What people are looking at on this blog

Tank car weathering

Image
Rapido Model Trains recently released their model of the Procor GP20 20,000 gallon general purpose tank car.  This has long been on my list of "must have" models for the Hudson Bay Railway.  Any photo with a tank car in it from the late 1970's to the 1990's was likely one of these cars.  They were used to haul gasoline, diesel and other fuel to various parts of the northern railway network.  They were used to stock the fuel tank farm in Churchill that serviced the barges that supplied communities along Hudsons Bay.  This required massive numbers of tank cars to travel north.   The model from Rapido is very nicely done with etched walkways and nicely rendered fine details.  They are pretty much ready to go out of the box, however I want to try adding some weathering to the cars to better represent the prototype.   One challenge is that there are not that many photographs of these cars in service in the early 1980's, as much due to the cost of a roll of film as at t
Read more

CN Boxcars a Plenty

Image
Canadian National had a long lasting fleet of 40 foot boxcars, some of which lasted until 1996 in grain service.  Modelling northern Manitoba in the early 1980's requires a significant number of 40 footers in both grain and general service.   Over the past several years I have been building out my fleet of these cars using RTR, kitbashed kits and resin kits.  There have also been numerous CN painted models done over the years, with some being relatively accurate while others are stand in models - some call these foobies. First Thing To  Do If you want to accurately model any CN steel boxcar your first stop should be to find a copy of Railroad Model Craftsman's August 1993 issue with Stafford Swain's seminal article "Canadian National's 1937 AAR design 40-foot steel boxcars".  It covers the entire range of 40 foot steel cars from 1937 to the end of 40' car deliveries in 1957.  This is "must read" material.  CN Lines has a number of articles on the
Read more

Painting wheels for roller bearing and standard bearing trucks

Image
One of my pet peeves is otherwise nicely done models riding on shiny metal wheels - it ruins the effect of all the other work done on the model.  And you should NOT use plastic wheelsets - they seem to attract dirt and grime and gum up your track.  Swap out the plastic wheels for aftermarket metal wheelsets.   Most of my replacement wheelsets are Intermountain, available in boxes of 100 axles.  The wheel profile is not the best but they are readily available and are generally in proper gauge or easily adjusted.  I have tried other brands but they are hit and miss as far as being readily available locally.  I have found that Rapido wheelsets are always too narrow compared to the NMRA, and they are a bugger to regauge.   My process for the wheels is fairly simple and gives good results.  Below are my go to paints: Vallejo Air Black and Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust If you want to you can first clean the wheels with 99% (or whatever % you have available) alcohol to clean any oil and dirt
Read more