Weathering a Trainman Thrall 4750 covered hopper
I start out my weathering process by fading the hopper using any one of three custom fading mixes. On a darker color covered hopper, I use my white fading mix. On a lighter color, I use my dark fading mix. I also have a rust mix that I use on either color. I also sometimes will use all three fade mixes on one hopper. It just depends on what I'm looking for. I think you'll see these hoppers actually look good enough with just the airbrush weathering. After all, not all covered hoppers have streaks down the sides. Some are just dirty with blown on grime of different colors. OK, here we go!
What I use for my airbrush fading is a 40% Testor's Dullcote to 50% thinner and only about a 10% mix of either Floquil Rail Tie Brown, Floquil White, or Floquil Rust. Sometimes, the Rail Tie Brown is "too brown" for my likes so I'll add some Grimy Black to darken it some. Here is what I use beyond the fading mixes.
The oil paint colors I use the most. I simply squirt some out onto a piece of plastic.
I thin my oils with odorless turpentine called Turpenoid.
I like using these angled flat end brushes. They fit nicely between the ribs of most PS or Thrall covered hoppers. They do fine with center flow hoppers but takes a bit more care and patience.
I like using a stubby end brush like this for dry brush techniques. When I dry brush, I dip this type of brush into my oil paint and then scrub most of it out into a rag. I use dry brush methods to show the buckling of the side panels, scrubbing some rust onto the roof walks, adding some lighter shades of rust on the sides over the airbrush coats and oil washes.
I purchased these brushes at Walmart. I use them for the very fine tapering rust streaks flowing down below rust spots. I also use them to rub some oils (rust color) along the edges of the vertical ribs, rust streaks from the roof walk supports, and in other various locations. A couple of the brushes in this package are small "flat end" brushes that can be squeezed into a very thin cross section after dipping it into the oil color needed to make very small and narrow rust streaks. Always wipe most of the oil out into a spare rag first, then stick the brush between a folded paper towel, and push down while pulling the brush out. You'll get a very narrow cross section in your brush for great control of very small rust streaks and lines.
Here you see how I mix my turpenoid with the oils for the rain streaks down the sides of my covered hoppers. You'll want more turpenoid and less oil paint. If you do get too much oil paint onto the sides of your covered hopper, just simple dip your brush into pure turpenoid, touch a paper towel to get rid of some (not all) of the excess turpenoid, and simply wipe down the side of the panel on your covered hopper again to soak up some of the excess color. You will sometimes have an excess at the bottom of each panel between the ribs where a lot of the moisture will collect. Don't worry about it. Use a spare airbrush and blow some air onto the side of the covered hopper to quickly dry the oil/turpenoid mix so you're ready for the next step. I like to dip a very small brush into some Vandyke Brown and scrub some out into a rag and then drybrush along the bottom edges of your hopper panels and those darker wet spots will go away. Hope this makes sense.
The top hopper is right out of the box. The bottom hopper was faded with my Dullcote/thinner/Floquil White fading mix. I simply airbrushed the whole hopper! I think you can see the difference in the photo. It was more obvious in person.
The top photo is the white faded hopper. The bottom photo is after I added my dark fading mix (Dullcote/thinner/Floquil Rail Tie Brown) using my airbrush. I did add extra "spurts" with my airbrush in about three locations between each rib to show some panel buckling.
I took my dark fading mix and adding more color along the bottom edges for grime blown up onto the sides and also added more of my dark fading mix along each rib to darken those areas too. After this step, I cleaned the ribs with a Q-tip swab dipped in some lacquer thinner.
Here are a couple variations of weathering with one being darker than the other. The darker one simply has more layers of my dark fading color. I also weathered the hopper bays and then added the wheel splatters using a thicker mix of Rail Tie Brown with some black added to darken it up a bit. This mix I'd say is about a 70% thinner, some Dullcote, and 30% paint this time. I turn my airbrush way down, turn the air pressure way down (maybe about 10 PSI) to spray these splatters. I use anywhere from 20 to 30 PSI otherwise depending on the look I want.
Next, I weathered the tops of the hoppers with my airbrush using my fading mixes. I also used the rust mix a bit more on top. I removed the roof walk which is easy to do on Trainman hoppers before weathering the tops. I wiped off the hatches with a Q-tip dipped in lacquer thinner to clean them up a bit. After a coat of Dullcote to protect what I have applied so far, I'll "dry brush" some white oil paint or a darker color like Vandyke Brown to fade the hatches a bit after wiping them clean with my Q-tip.
Added some wheel splatter on the ends. Don't worry about getting paint on the end cages. Just take your Q-tip dipped in Lacquer thinner and clean them off a bit. I also added some light vertical streaks downward from the top edge of the ends.
A finished view of the side after airbrush fading and weathering.
I added some color to the straps that hold the hatches down and you can see the rust streaks from the roof walk supports. Yes, I did all of this with my airbrush and then cleaned up a bit around the straps with a small brush dipped in lacquer thinner.
Here are all four numbers of the Trainman Thrall 4750 covered hoppers. As you can see, I think you'll agree that leaving them as is with just the airbrush weathering is good enough for hoppers that are not too beat up yet.
And now, here are the same four after adding my oil washes thinned with turpenoid and some dry brushing on top of that. Remember to spray on a coat of Dullcote between each weathering layer to protect the previous layer. Remember those angled flat end brushes I showed above? I simple dipped them in turpenoid and then picked up some Vandyke Brown or Burnt Umber and simply pulled my brush from top to bottom. If the oil is too dark, just add some turpenoid to your brush, touch it to a paper towel, and then pull it down from top to bottom again on each panel between each rib. I'll blow this dry with air from my spare airbrush, coat with a layer of Dullcote, and then take a second color like Burnt Sienna for a more richer color of rust and streak or pull this down the side panels from top to bottom. You can also use your white oil paint to show grain streaks down the sides. Blow dry again with air from your airbrush, coat with another airbrushed layer of Dullcote and you're ready for the next layer of weathering. This is where I usually hand paint my rust spots and take one of those tiny brushes to pull a small bit of either Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna (depending on how fresh the rust is) oil paint downward for rust streaks. Taper these out gradually. That's why it's important to get most of the oil out of your brush so it doesn't go on to heavy to begin with. Build the layers up! It's much better this way. Another trick I like to use is putting a piece of paper right above the rust spot so when you use your oils for rust streaks, the streaks are BELOW the rust spot and not above. :O)
OK, I'm going to submit this right now before I do something stupid and loose it all or my power goes out. It's happened before folks! I did not proof read guys. It takes too long and I just want to get this posted. :O)
