Accessing the video in this issue

Blip TV has gone out of business, so to access the video in this article, see this link on YouTube:

Very effective

Having seen Joe's railroad in person several years ago, the use of these weathering powders and zip texturing is very effective and realistic when complete. Once I have space for a layout in my new town, I plan on using his techiques to build my scenery. Great job Joe.

Weathering

Great addition to my techniques skill set.  I'm going to practice on some old file folders, then a couple old 53' boxes.  I have always wondered how to pre-compensate for the effect of a clear overcoat.  Practice, eh?

Thanks

Jeff Thompson

Another excellent article

Thanks Joe for another great article that railway modellers can use for any scale. This type of article is really useful for us foreigners who don't model US prototype.

Tony

Victoria, Australia

Very Informative

Very informative article.  In it you mention using Micro Flat to fix the weathering powder.  If applying it with an airbrush, what do you use to thin it and what is the ratio of thinner to Micro Flat?

Doug

Thinning water-based paint products

Some modelers swear by Windex as a thinner. Myself, I just use bottled water with a couple drops of liquid soap per cup of water.

Also look into using Liquitex flow aid. Liquitex is a brand name of artists paints and accessories. The flow aid helps to prevent the paint from drying quite as fast. This will greatly reduce the amount of tip clogging and help the paint lay down better on the model surface. It only takes a drop or two to do the job.

When you mix your paint with water/Wndex, just add the flow aid at that time and see how it changes the way the paint goes through the gun. The modeler I first heard the flow-aid comment from said: "Once I learned the Flow Aid secret have not had one single issue with airbrushing acrylics since and that has been about five years now."

Liquitex Flow Aid

I am seeing the Flow Aid described as a concentrate that must be dilluted with distilled water, then mixed with your paint.  Can it also be added "by the drop" at time of mixing, with equally good results?

As an added bonus, I have a Liquitex dealer right in my local area!

Flow Aid

Flow Aid is pretty concentrated stuff, sort of like Kodak's Photo-Flo used in washing film and prints. Adding it by the drop straight from the original container would probably be a problem unless you have a way to measure by the milliliter. Craft and art supply stores carry Liquitex products.

Sounds like another article is in the wind ...

Sounds like doing an article on water-based airbrushing techniques would be in order.

I'll have to see what we can do - or do I hear a volunteer raising their hand to do an article? We'd like some video too, don't forget!

Excellent!

An article of this sort would be of great interest to me!

BTW, thanks for the article on the zip weathering techniques and the previous article on zip texturing.  The articles are a great follow up to what I already knew from watching the scenery DVD's!

What about

Leslie Eaton?  I've seen her post here on occasion and doesn't she do a clinic on airbrushing?  That would be a great article, I'm sure.

Airbrushing

I'd love to see an article on airbrushing. Being new to the use of both a single action and double action airbrush I can use all the help I can get. It's the mixing and thinning that I need help with in particular. The windex idea is intriguing, but how much to use and where to mix is my concern.

Roy

Beginner to Advanced

Yes, those were my thoughts too.  Perhaps more than one article, a series of articles from beginner to advanced?

I have a single action airbrush that I know next to nothing about and like Roy, could use all the help I can get!

Flow-Aid

Here's what Liquitex has to say about Flow-Aid.

Airbrushing is like every other model railroad building skill.  Once you've screwed things up a couple times, you learn what works best.

I'm not sure a series of articles is needed but one on the basics sounds like it would be well-received. Part of the campaign to change the hobby from buying to doing.

Track weathering for Shay powered RRs

 Joe, it sure looks good!  I'm old enough to remember Wescott's introduction of Zip Texturing back in the mid-1960s but I don't recall that he ever thought of using it as weathering!

One note:  on a logging line using Shays, the space between the rails was pretty much not greasy.  Because a Shay's cylinders and gearing are all on the outside of the engine on the engineer's side, a line of black and grey drippings appeared along the tie tops outside of the rails.  One line was laid down from Shays headed to the woods and the second laid down when they returned.

This photo illustrates this.  It happens to be dual gauge but the standard gauge was very seldom used.  The narrow gauge was used almost around the clock until a year before I took this photo in May 1959. After that, it was daylight use only.  Note that the drippings from the Shay gears are heavier on the right due to outbound Shays with a train of empties headed upgrade.  The drippings on the left (between the narrow gauge and standard gauge rails) are lighter because the Shays were not working very hard.

(BTW, this is the upper yards of the West Side Lumber Co. of Tuolumne, CA, on 5/10/1959).

Best Regards, Hart Corbett

.

Rating articles

I would like it better if the article rating icon was placed at the end of an article so I didn't have to click back through the article after reading it in order to rate it.  Your updated articles on zip-texturing these last two issues have been great.  I also appreciated hints on rail coloring as I'm getting ready to do this.  MRH has more "how to" than any other publication.  Keep up the great work.

Weathering powders versus airbrushing

Joe, I'd like to hear your perspective on this choice.  When do you prefer powders and when do you prefer airbrushing?  I've found basic railcar weathering with a wash of roof brown and black often working better than chalks...but I've never tried mixing with plaster before dullcoating.  I've also wanted to get realistic grease streaks up the ends of my tankcars from wheelsplash...I'll try your technique next time I get a chance. 

More ideas!

Joe,

Thanks for giving me some more ideas about what to do with weathering powders. I have only recently started using these and I have been very pleased with the results. Now I have even more ideas.

Adam

I would like it better if the

I agree. I don't always track back to the beginning to rate it. It's not that I am unwilling, but that I often forget.

Source of Materials?

I found this to be a great article, however, in looking at the formula's for the various applications, there is no mention of what these "texture/weather powders" are. Am I to assume the author is using powdered pigment tempra type paints and mixing thses with the plaster??? Years ago I was introduced to what was called Zip Texturing by using the Tempra Brand of powdered water color paints. These came in large cardboard tubesw much like salt does today. I have yet to find a source for these anymore, most of these now come only in a liquid form. I would love to find the powders again as this was so easy to apply during scenery building. Could you give us a bit more information? This application looks very interesting and I would love to try this soon. The results looked very convincing. Over all I found this article very well presented.

Thanks for the good work and I hope to hear from you soon.

Rick Bell, Newton, NJ

Try here...

Here Rick, try this, http://www.dickblick.com/products/rich-art-fresco-dry-tempera/  I got mine from here but they are hit or miss as to what is in stock and when they will get it

Happy Holidays

Steve

Zip Weathering

Great article together with the previous one on zip texturing.

Interesting to know this goes way back to the 60s.  

I'm a relative newbie to active modelling (regret all those years I was missing out!).  A friend of mind has recently been showing me a similar technique but mixing paint powder and sawdust and applying it to wet painted plaster.  Then he finishes this base scenic coat with proprietary scenic products (static grass etc).

Will be trying the zip texturung and waethering soon as I am planning an industral switching layout in HO (inspired by the Lance Mindheim article in MRH of course.

The how to do stuff is invaluable guys keep up the good work it's much appreciated.

Glyn

Skills and more skills