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.  







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