Yup, sure have.

Most of my layouts have been around the walls of spare rooms so that you only see one side of the car at a time and modeling the early '60s with a majority of boxcar red cars one side could be one road and the other another road.  This easily doubles your car inventory and makes the decals go a bit further. 

Your proposal is much the same idea and would seem to make sense to me as in real life one side is always different than the other.  A word of caution however, if you thin your "herd" at a swap meet be prepared to hear all sorts of peoples criticism of how one side of your car is different than the other, as if you didn't know.  

Keep 'em on the rails and have fun!  Mike

roof of the car

Question, how would you deal with the roof of the car.  New roof would not look correct with the weathered side and a weathered roof would not go with a new car, unless the "new" side of the car was a "repaint".

And I know someone will find a photo(s) to prove that it could happen.

Doug W

"I'm thinking of just

"I'm thinking of just weathering one side per the prototype including graffiti and leaving the opposite side as "new."  When the car is on your layout you only see one side a time anyway. Has anyone done this?"

    I usually weather both sides  a bit then do one side more heavily with rust,graffiti, patches, etc. That way the roof is reasonably compatible  with both sides. If I was doing a car that I wanted a new unweathered finish on one side , I'd probably just moderately weather the other side so the roof wouldn't have such a large contrast from clean to dirty....DaveB

You might even...

You might even want to put different car numbers on the other side - two cars for the price of one!

George

"You might even want to put

"You might even want to put different car numbers on the other side - two cars for the price of one!"

I'm thinking....

I'm with you on weathering both sides, roof and ends and then applying graffiti, etc. on one side to match the photo I have of the exact car I'm modeling.

Modeling Missouri Pacific up until the UP took over.

I'm thinking....

I'm with you on weathering both sides, roof and ends and then applying graffiti, etc. on one side to match the photo I have of the exact car I'm modeling.

kgalli

Modeling Missouri Pacific up until the UP took over.

If no prototype, freelance it...

Dear ???

The guys over at The Weathering Shop frequently deal with this connundrum,

and it's common to have one-side "proto weathered/graffiti'd", and the other side weathered in "generic", "fantasy", or "freelance" style 
(That's "fantasy" as in "in the style of the prototype, but no specific prototype",
not as in "dragons, Middle Earth, and steampunk"...  )

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr