weathering

Fantastic result..!

Your description makes me think this took a bit longer than my five minute max attention span, but, wow. Very convincing.

Thanks!

Thanks, tp. It didn't take as long as it sounds. By the time the last straw got a wash the first one was ready for its next one. And I used what I had, so no trip to the store or waiting for a delivery

If it weren't for the way the picture is taken...

...then I'd mistake these for the real deal!
These look fantastic- they sure fool my eyes. Looks just like they've been sitting next to some sort of work/build site, out in the elements, getting covered in dirt and grime, and corroded by moisture.
Positively love it!

-Ellie

Thank you!

Thank you, Ellie, that's the look I was going for

Looks like a process I can use for

Looks like a process I can use for the structural shapes that come in a Vollmer 45616 Steel Depot. While Vollmer makes the steel sections stored on their rack shiny (in their illustration) I don't ever remember dealing with shiny steel back in the day when I worked in a fab shop. That excludes things like cold rolled steel bar, of course. Even under cover, there will end up being discoloring. (oxidation, if you will)

Thanks. I'll bookmark this technique.

Thanks!

Thanks, Gary, nice to have feedback from someone who's worked with similar stuff. 

Since this was an experiment I tried different things on the pipes, changing the order of the colors used or how many layers or how heavy/thin a wash. Surprisingly one thing that didn't affect the final results at all was whether a given straw had been sprayed black or brown.

Very realistic results!

Looks great Bill.  I've got a handful of straws that are waiting to turn into flatcar loads, so I will have to give this method a try.  How do you hold the straws while you're painting them and how do the straws handle after they are painted?  I have heard some folks have trouble with the paint flaking off. 

Again, looks great and thanks for sharing.

plastic straws

Nice job,

Never tried straws,, but this is proof of nice finish on plastic.

Thanks,

Boudreaux,   B.C.E.  R.R.

Thanks, Bob. Spraying the

Thanks, Bob. Spraying the straws with the flat black or brown gave them a finish that the layers of acrylic can adhere to. The straws also have a nice thin wall that looks like it could be pipe. Some were 'regular' straws which scaled out to about 12" diam. in HO, others were coffee stirrers that scaled about 9". There are a fair number of other sizes as well that can provide a variety of pipes for multiple scales.

Brant, Sorry, I missed your

Brant, Sorry, I missed your questions until just now.

To hold the coffee stirrer straws for painting I slid the tip of a round toothpick into one end after adding a wrap of masking tape to the end of the toothpick to create a nice friction fit, just snug enough to hold it. For the 'normal' size straws I wrapped a few layers of masking tape around the blunt end of the skewer.

I also worried about how well the paint would adhere to the slick, shiny plastic straws. I thought about giving them a gentle sanding, but decided to just wipe them off with some 90% isopropyl alcohol (what was on hand) and see how that worked.

The "pipes" are only about a week old, so not sure of the paint's long term adherence. So far it seems very good. I've handled them a lot. I did not apply any clear, flat coat over the acrylic craft paints because I like the finish as it is.  

billgill4,  Very nice looking

billgill4, 

Very nice looking pipes. I like the variance.

I only made one once.

Deemiorgos, glad you

Deemiorgos, glad you "piped up" and posted the photo of your pipe. It looks really good!

How did you weather it?

Thanks. billgill4. Have you

Thanks. billgill4.

Have you been able to find smaller straws with smaller diameters?

Deemiorgos, The smallest

Deemiorgos, The smallest "straws" that I found so far are for coffee stirring and are about 9 inches in diameter in HO scale. The red plastic tubes that come with spray cans of WD-40 are smaller. They have very thick walls, but if the ends can't be seen, they can be convincing pipes. For photographs stiff wires can also look like pipes if the ends are obscured.

billgill4, Thanks for the

billgill4,

Thanks for the info; a hunting I will go.

If you hit up a restaurant

If you hit up a restaurant supply store you can get the coffee stirrers in boxes of 500...

They may have different sizes of straws too.... unless you live in CA.

Good to know, thanks barr_ceo

Good to know, thanks barr_ceo

The small wire

idea has merit.  If you go that route, look for solid core wire (a good example is "thermostat wire", presently sold in a variety of wire counts and gauges at Home Depot).  If you cut it with a pair of flush cutters, the end will be suitably round, or close to it.  It will usually have a 'curve', or 'set', shape, from the roll it was on.  That can be suppressed/removed by rolling each wire under a heavy object on a flat surface.  We used to straighten bare bus wires that way for wiring purposes (not DCC buses, but power bus jumpers on PC boards).  It would take a while to do a whole car load that way, but I expect the results would be acceptable, particularly if the "pipe" ends were close to the bulkhead ends of a flatcar, where they can't be observed end-on.

Of course, you can always just buy Plastruct tubing, or rod, in suitable diameters, but do the math on the cost of a carload before you go too far down that path.

The WD 40 tube is okay, but I wonder if the oils would prevent paint adhesion.  Clean thoroughly, I guess; same with any repurposed tubing (such as comes in many pump applicators for household cleansers, etc.).  We throw so much out these days, I'm always watching the recycle bin and garbage bin for things to repurpose.

The other 'trick' for making loads is, of course, the blocking often used to support stacks.  I've seen a photo (somewhere) of a 6 x 6 x 8' (guesstimate) with notches cut to prevent pipes from rolling during loading/unloading.   The notches were V-shaped, but not sure of the angle.  You pretty much need to make dozens of these for a single load.  How would one make that?  V-groove siding sort of comes to mind, but the spacing and depth would be questionable.  Or do we just go with flat stock, and 'imagineer' the notches?

Blair

misleading title

When I saw the title I thought I might have mistakenly logged into a Urological site. ha

  Found a home for my rusty

Found a home for my rusty pipe.

.

A friend with a laser cutter would probably be one of the best bets.

Or 3D print a small piece and paint it to look like wood.

Either would be the way to get a bunch of identical pieces.