Scratchbuilder’s Corner
new cars are the way to go. Many of us model somewhere in between. My HO railroad is set in an urban area, but I have chosen not to exactly duplicate the seedier blighted areas of the city usually frequented by a railroad. Like- wise, I have chosen the middle ground where my rolling stock is concerned. I like the term “nicely weathered” refer- ring to the natural state of a working and useful piece of equipment, not one that is minutes from total scrap. What we will strive for here is normal ware and tear on a useable piece of working rolling stock. Not fresh from the paint shop, but not ready for the scrap heap and definitely nothing cartoonish. Being semi-retired, I do not budget my hobby time as closely as I did when I was working full time.
I, however,
still pay some attention to the “time budget,” and try not to waste too much of my bench time. If I am going to weather some cars, I’m not going to do just one, I want to get four, five, or even six done in one sitting. Spread the prep time over several cars. The cars I use go together in seven to ten minutes each, so the assembly part is minor. Try to make the cars all the same type for ease of construction. In this case, I am doing four 40-foot AAR steel box- cars. This was a design accepted by the Association of
American Railroads
(thus the AAR). Decant all four kits, clipping all the parts at once, and sepa- rating them into appropriate piles. I use an artists paint mixing pan to separate all the smaller parts, and oth- er sized containers for the larger ones. The bodies are just lined up on the bench. In this case, all but one is in the oxide red range, but I like to work from
A small artist’s mixing pan is a great place to store parts while assembling kits (top). The technique of dry brushing involves dipping the brush in the paint (above left) and then wip- ing most of the paint off the brush (above right) before applying what is left in a streaky fashion to the model. This truck sideframe (below left) has been dry brushed with some light gray paint. These wheels (below right) have been placed in a plywood fixture and sprayed with a can of rusty brown paint. Once the paint dries, the treads will be cleaned.
the darker ones to the lighter, and usu- ally line them up in color order. The only thing shiny on a car wheel is the tread. The rest is a dark brown rust, even from the factory. I “rust” my wheels about ten car’s worth at a time. I have a 24″ length of ¹/₂″ plywood about 2″ wide that I have cut forty ¹/₈″ wide
slots into, each about ¹/₂″ deep. This fix- ture holds 40 wheelsets which I blast with a rattle can of rusty brown paint. Do this in a well ventilated area. The damage to your lungs from this stuff is subtle but long lasting and, in time, fa- tal. It does not take that long to spray them up, so do it outside, even in the
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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