BN 460649

First example is BN 460649, an Athearn FMC 4700cf covered hopper.   This started life in full Burlington Northern lettering with the larger herald, a twin to the car to the right in the photo below.  I removed the lettering, herald, and reporting marks using tissue paper soaked in Micro Sol, then renumbered the car for one of the plain-scheme FMCs that visited my prototype in the month I model.  I faded the car with PanPastel Paynes Gray Tint, then lightly grimed up the vertical surfaces with Black.  The underbody, trucks, and wheel splatter are Raw Umber, and the trucks and hoppers got a bit of Raw Umber Tint.  Truck springs are Red Iron Oxide Shade.  Wheel faces were painted with Ace Hardware's Rust Stop Ruddy Brown Primer, a cheap spray can paint that's now my go-to color for couplers and wheel faces. 

I just realized that I forgot to add coupler cut bars and air hoses - something I typically do while a car is out of service for weathering.  That's since been corrected.

Total weathering time:  Approx. 15 minutes

Prototype photo of BN 460649 by Joe Rogers:

MKT 100301

MKT 100301 is an Athearn single-dome tank car, a stand-in for the 19k gallon cars the UP used to ship used diesel locomotive oil from its North Platte shop to Searle Petroleum on the IAIS at Council Bluffs.  Many cars in this service were ancient - well past the 40-year on cars that can be interchanged.  However, since the UP had trackage rights on the IAIS in my era, the cars were exempt.

While this model is a poor representation of the prototype, it was available in factory paint lettered for one of the cars that was often use in Searle service.  The Katy red was VERY bright, contributing to the car's toyish look on the layout, so I was excited to tone it down.  Since it's a stand-in and will be replaced once a more accurate model becomes available or once I get around to kitbashing it, I didn't bother replacing the old trucks or upgrading any details.

Weathering again used PanPastel Raw Umber and Raw Umber Tint for the underbody, trucks, and wheel splatter, while the upper portion of the tank got Burnt Sienna Extra Dark.

Total weathering time:  Approx. 10 minutes

Athearn photo of a factory car:

MKT 100301 spotted at Searle Petroleum, 5/28/2004, B-side:

Model, B-side:

MKT 100301 spotted at Searle, 4/9/2002, A-side

Model, A-side:

Very nice, Joe

I plan to take a couple days in the next few weeks and do a bunch of cars with pan pastels cause I don't like shiny plastic running around.  In my era, the rustbuckets were very uncommon and pan pastels can give you a believable weathering job in just a few minutes as you point out.  This post inspires me to follow through on that.

UP 69601

UP 69601 is another Athearn single-dome stand-in for Searle Petroleum used oil service.  In this case, the UP 69601 number isn't correct for a car that spent time on the IAIS in my era, since all 5 were UP 70000-series cars, but since I don't expect this car to be long for this world, I'm not going to bother changing it.

The only change to this model aside from weathering and the previously-installed Intermountain wheels and Kadee #58/158 couplers was the removal of the Union Pacific lettering.  Weathering was very similar to that on MKT 100301, but I also used Burnt Sienna on the upper portion of the tank.

Total weathering time:  Approx. 10 minutes

Athearn factory car:

Prototype pic of UP 70155, one of the cars that was on the IAIS in my era and was used as a rough guide for weathering.

UP 69601:

Dave

Thanks very much Dave.  None of these models are going to be mistaken for a Tom Johnson or Mike Confalone weathering job, but for the minimal time invested, the PanPastels probably get me about as far as I care to go with weathering on the vast majority of my cars.  I can't, and don't really want to, spend hours or days per car for my entire fleet.  Certain special cars, yes, but not everything.  I'd rather spend that time operating.

I also really like that I can even weather cheap stand-ins like those Athearn single-dome tank cars without worrying about throwing away a big time investment when they're replaced.  10 minutes per car to at least end up with something that doesn't look like a complete toy isn't bad.

One big help for me with PanPastels has been the discovery that makeup brushes work FAR better than those foam applicators that come with their weathering sets.  The brushes easily get in around details (such as on truck sideframes) with no effort at all and do a great job of blending, while the foam applicators pass right over details and leave a clear demarcation line with each pass.  The sideframes on those cars I've posted so far have taken no more than about 5 seconds each.

Good execution on those cars Joe!

Pan pastels are a great weapon to add to one's weathering arsenal.

The only thing that I don't like about them is it's hard to get good crisp lines with them when needed.  But what you've done on that BN hopper is where the pastels really shine, err.... show their worth.

Ace Hardware paint

Joe, 

Just to make sure, the color is called Ruddy Brown - not Rusty Brown? 

I ask because I saw a reference to a Rusty something primer by Rustoleum recently. 

brown and rusty

Krylon Ruddy Brown Primer is an oxide red color.  The Rustoleum references may be in this month's article about weathering freight car wheels.

Ace Ruddy Brown

Hi Jeff - Definitely Ruddy Brown:

Here's how it looks in an unweathered state:

Pan Pastels

Pan pastels are part of my weathering arsenal.  There great if you want a lite weathering affect or as a final cote to the overall weathering project.  

Joe

Nicely done

Joe,

Great job, the cars look awesome. One question: Did you dullcoat first?

I really like that Ace Hardware brown for wheels and couplers, I am going to have to find that locally. 

Thanks for sharing.

Single dome tanks in revenue!?!?!?!?

Ok, single dome tanks still in revenue service, that's pretty awesome, just...wow. The weathering is fantastic too. Been meaning to get a few of those myself. I picked up a set of Master's Touch chalks from Hobby Lobby a while back. they're good, but I still want to get my hand on some pan pastels anyways.

Thanks for sharing,

    Jacob

Thank you

Thanks Steven and Jacob for your encouragement. 

Steve - Yes, I think applying Dullcote before PanPastels is just about essential.  It completely changes the way they adhere.  However, I don't apply Dullcote afterward.  The PP seem to stay on just fine without a sealing coat, and I don't like the way Dullcote diminishes the effect.

Jacob - Yes, those cars were pretty ancient.  I model 2005, and they were really old even then.  From memory, I believe they lasted in this service until about 2010.  After posting these pics, I realized just how old those Athearn cars look even in comparison to the ancient prototypes.  I'm on vacation today, and I've spent most of the morning trying to find a way to kitbash decent models of those cars. 

American Limited makes a nice model of ATSF TK-N tank cars that's somewhat close to those I need, but only 16k gallon cars vs. the MKT and UP prototypes being 19k, and they don't have the more rounded end I'd need.  Plan B is that it looks like there's an accurate frame on Shapeways that's intended specifically for a kitbash of these prototypes involving a shortened Athearn 62' tank car and with domes taken from a Tyco 3-dome tank.  I'm thinking that's going to be on my to-do list soon.

And by the way Jacob, I'd definitely encourage you to give PanPastels a try.  They're not like chalks at all - more like womens makeup - so they adhere and blend much easier, like a combination of chalk and paint almost.  Very forgiving, and they seem to be very easy to get the hang of.  I'll say again though that the most important thing is to use makeup brushes rather than the foam applicators that come with PanPastels.  Much, MUCH easier to get good, blended coverage and to get the pigment in and around details.  Here's the set I use from Walmart:

Dullcoat

Joe,

Thanks, I figured you dullcoated first. I too skip dullcoating afterwards, the PanPastels adhere quite nicely and I don't handle my freight cars very often. 

Also thanks for the tip on makeup brushes, I will have to pick up an assortment like the one you use.

Steve

Steve

Thanks Steve - I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone on that front.  I handle my cars a bit when re-staging the layout.  I've never noticed PanPastels pigment coming off on my fingers, but just to be safe, I've just learned to pick them up in such a way that I minimize surface contact.  I've never seen handling disturb a completed PP weathering job.

Sometimes I envy those who

Sometimes I envy those who DON'T model iron ore... so monothematic.

Looks VERY good, Joe.  Don't discount your work!

Encouraging

It’s encouraging to see examples like this - very nice results!

Thank you

Thanks very much Milt.  Honestly, even dullcoating those cars in preparation for the PanPastel work made a huge difference.  It's amazing how I can come to accept/overlook cars like this in their shiny/gaudy paint schemes, but my brain just looks right past them.

Ken, thank you.  I feel the same way after realizing how easy these were - it made me just want to do more.  This morning I found myself doing the math to determine how many cars I'd need to weather per week in order to complete the roster in a year.  The answer was a very reasonable 4 cars/week.  Of course, that means I'd be accomplishing nothing else in that year, but it's still a thought!

Grace Davison is accurate

Gaudy or not, the Grace Davison paint scheme is accurate.  Those cars carried refined minerals like kaolin clay and limestone to petroleum refineries to crack crude oil into lighter monomers.  So I don't know if any ever of those cars ever ran on the Iowa Interstate.  Plain Jane PD5000s like the one Joe modeled are common on the IAIS, mostly carrying corn starch from ADM in Cedar Rancid, excuse me, Cedar Rapids ...

That said, the Grace PDs weren't shiny for long, but the ones I saw were not very dirty either.   It's the nature of the cargos carried by the big pressure differential hoppers that they don't get too dirty, although they have gotten quite rusty.  But you can never have too many plain grey covered hoppers.

Scott Chatfield

Kitbashing 19000 gallon fuel oil tanks

I hadn't thought of putting the Tyco domes on the Athearn 62' tank, but sure enough, they fit.  You need to take about 12'6" out of the tank body and frame to get the length right.  A lot easier than trying to clean up the Tyco tank body to make it look like an actual real tank car seen in North America.....  Not sure what drugs they were ingesting when they cut the tool for that one.

BTW, the Tyco tank we're talking about is that big 3-dome monstrosity often found decorated for Coca-Cola and the like.  Sometimes you find them real cheap at train shows.  Its only redeeming quality is the domes pop right off.  They also fit the old AHM "chemical tank" (an ICC-105 pressure tank) so you can turn it into an ICC-103 non-pressure tank.

So my project to build one or two of the CGW's "rainbow" company service tank cars is back on track.  Don't really need any at this point, but hey.....

Scott Chatfield

Thanks Scott

Thanks for the info and tips Scott.  I'm actively shopping for the kitbash components, though I don't know how soon I'll get around to actually building.  I hope you'll keep me posted on yours if you decide to move ahead with that project.

TFM 81064

TFM 81064 is a car that frequented my prototype in KCS grain service.  Since I couldn't find any Intermountain cars in this scheme and didn't want to wait for the next release (and couldn't find good detail shots to have custom decals made), I started with a factory-painted Walthers cylindrical hopper and, much like my recent Walthers PD covered hopper , upgraded the details.  I snipped away the ladder rungs, stirrups, grab irons, etc. and added new piano wire ladder rungs, modified A-Line stirrups, Tichy grabs, and Detail Associates air hoses and coupler cut bars.

Weathering is all PanPastels except for some oils for smaller rust spots.

Total weathering time:  Approximately two hours

2010 prototype pic by Chris Palmieri from http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1993410 :

A-side of model

B-side

More details on details

Joe, how about more info or a step by step article on exactly what you do in removing the cast on details and replacing them.  This car looks great!  It has exactly the right "blah" look to blend in.

With black reporting marks you could make your own decals by printing on decal paper.  I've made some signs for structures and made reporting marks for a MILW gon that CP used as a boom car.

Robert

Details

Thanks Robert!  The detail work was really straightforward.  I just removed the ladder rungs, stirrup steps, and grabs with a flush-cut clipper.  The rungs were kind of crudely replaced with piano wire, gluing the ends just above the remains of the factory rungs on the vertical supports to give them more support.  Holes for the stirrups and grab irons were just drilled out where the original parts once stood.