K.I.S.S.

My preference is to use a gloss coat before (and usually after) the decals, then weather lightly.  I feel that this most accurately replicates reality - gloss paint with matte dirt on top.  I would not suggest adding shadows or highlights, as it tends to be overdone and look too much like a caricature.

Try it on a scrap piece of rolling stock without the decals, in order to see how it looks without spending any more than you must.  Plus, practice is always a good thing.

Glossed it before the decals

Glossed it before the decals and after, yup.  My issue is the door and window frames (and rivet decals) really.  This is based on a 1950's MoPac caboose and it's all red, even the steel roof, except for the undercarriage and grab irons . (Most had white trim, but mine doesn't. May add a fine aluminum trim later, haven't decided.)  Doing that with a gloss coat, and I just now ran it on my layout under the lighting it'll be 'used to', all the detail just disappears. Standing back about ten feet, it looks toy-like and plastic. Granted, I haven't removed the micro-mask film from the window glazing so they are still red, but I find it too stark to fit in with the more-realistically weathered locos and stock (and water tower and station for that matter) I have.

Should I say work with what I

Should I say work with what I have and add some dust to the bottom-half sides?  Even a freshly painted car, once ran on a line, is gonna get a little dirt or dust, and that wont be shiny.  Stick with the shine and hope for the best in my carefully-applied wash??

Dust it up

As I said before, I would not try to pick out any specific details.  What may work well for a static (and thus statically lit) display quickly turns weird on a moving model.  try dusting the cab lightly with weathering - a little ground color around the trucks, maybe some very light soot and grime washing over and off of the roof, etc.  Even a car which is routinely washed will not be pristine.  You can also try dusting it very lightly with a lighter shade of red, to simulate the effect of fading paint.  But whatever you do, let some of the shine show through, to keep that feeling of a well cared for and washed piece of rolling stock.

Here's an example of a locomotive which I weathered just the way I'm describing.  It's subtle, but it's there.

Reality of pristine equipment

The White Mountain Central in New Hampshire runs a Climax locomotive, and it is WELL cared for.  The engineer (who also fires it) is seen between each half-hour run, polishing, wiping down the glossy black locomotive, and otherwise trying to keep it looking perfect.  Even so, there's subtle effects to be seen.  Nothing so crass as weathering, just a bit of dirt on the undercarriage, and after a run, before he gets to cleaning, some light ash.  (She's a woodburner, converted from coal firing.  New Hampshire has minimal coal, but all the wood you could ever need.)

So, even a spotlessly maintained piece of equipment will show very light weathering, unless it has just had a bath.

My Pet Peeve

Guys, nothing bothers me more then clean shiny paint. In the real world even a few days under the hand of Mother Nature, a new paint job will show signs of weathering light though it may be, it's still different.

So I use as many proto photos as possible to do my weathering. I want them to look real! 

Ralph (CN6401)

In defense of clean & shiny

I'm guessing this will really upset you, then:

Even after weathering and grime and rust and general age & use, the paint still has a shine to it.  That's why I advocate weathering a gloss model, and (almost) never using Dullcoat.  I've heard the arguments about scale atmospheric haze and all sorts of things, but the fact remains, you can tell when there's gloss to paint even when you cannot see your reflection in it.  That and the realization that a satin sheen just looks better and more realistic to me make me feel that the best way to get realistic weathering is to start with a gloss base and then apply flat weathering to that.  Weathered far enough, the whole thing is flat.  A little less extreme, and it looks like a glossy paint job covered in grime.

Great work, Ralph

I dunno... I see lots of

I dunno... I see lots of shiny things in Roseville.

clean equipment

Yes UP has a good reputation of keeping their running equipment pretty clean, at least 80% of their equipment.

Fading Black Locomotive Paint

Weathering looks very good. How were you able to appropriately fade the ATSF zebra strip black base paint color? From long days in the desert sun many of these diesels are quite faded, especially on the top surfaces. 

A little less "gloss"

My personal preferences for matching a factory- or paint shop-fresh finish is to use a satin clear coat rather than straight gloss.  I've also mixed batches of "satin-flat" and "satin-gloss" for other variations, though this naturally works "much better" for the 1oz bottles than for the rattle cans.  I'm not even sure that there is a satin clear coat spray can available in model paint.

-Mark Hintz
DM Rail Group: IndustRail • Milwaukee Franklin & Norway • St. Louis Northern • Paris Coal Railway • South Fork

 

I put a satin finish in the

I put a satin finish in the topside, over a slightly lightened red, but it's still gloss on the sides.  Every time I look at it it just looks too..plastic?  I've got it detailed pretty good, and finally last night I added the brake wheels to the ends.  Got distracted a few months ago by my guitars...anyways..That convinced me it needed SOME kind of weathering.  I decided to go slow, as one always should when weathering.  I did a slight wash to raw umber and burnt sienna to the etched walkway on top to start.  Even newly painted, you wear off that paint and reveal the dark metal/rust underneath it.  Or else it's just gonna get dirty from usual foot traffic and since it's on top it wouldn't be painted nearly as often, I'd think.  Then that got me thinking about the ladders and steps of this caboose.  They'd had some scrapes and dirt too, so they got some of that same sublte wash.  That left the railing.  A worker in train yard is gonna have clean hands??  A little wash on the white railings/grab irons.  Gotta have some dirt around the brake wheel housing, due to lubrication collecting dirt, etc, so there's some there too.

It's a start.  On the ends, even though the awning creates a shadow, it looks alot better.  From the top it looks good but needs a bit more.  I guess I need some kinda small and subtle rust stain/run from where the walkway meats the roof, and there should be some kinda soot residue (I'm transition-era) but it has to be slight, imo.  I'll have to do some serious practice with my airbrush for that I think.

Little by little.... 

I'd post some pics, but I know my camera would just wash it all into one color.

If nothing else!

Steve, 

If you do nothing else add a light coat of Dulcoat. The shine that you are looking at is not even to scale. You can have a clean,  even pristine,  caboose but it needs to be dulled down. All of your rolling stock and engines would look more realistic if you get rid of the toy like shine. 

You will also find that the Dulcoat will bring out some of the detail. 

Ralph(CN6401)