A few days ago, I discussed the topic of weathering with Louis-Marie, who seldom model and never weathered a single car. Indeed, we weren't talking about "weathering" but about the effect of "weathered" cars on our interacting with trains. We came to the conclusion that weathering was that immersive process that transforms plastic toys into replicas of heavy steel prototypes. When weathered, there is a sense of weight and of mass than draws you to them and trigger that desire to play with trains. And since the QSSR is all about decrepit Southern Quebec operations... cars need to be decrepit. Fortunately, I've been able to collect dozen of heavily weathered cars that ran over the MMA rails back in the days and they provide countless inspiration.
However, that CNW hopper has never shown its face on pictures I've seen of MMA, but it was still in service in that era and given the wide variety of hoppers that wento to Farnham and Ste. Rosalie, there is a big chance that it could have visited the area at some point. But enough about that, back to the model and weathering!
Taking your
time with weathering projects is always the best way to assess what you are
doing and correct trajectory if required. Otherwise, you rush, you take these
supposed shortcuts and butcher your work. Not that I’m advocating to make prize
winning models at each time, but just not running mad with the pastels and
washes.
Paint faded with a mist of diluted white paint
In this
Walthers hopper’s case, the dark green is quite dark and while it was indeed
darker than other CNW hoppers, photographs clearly show it turned lighter with UV
exposition. Not only it was faded, but it also acquired a more yellowish hue with
time. Trying to replicate that may sound tricky but with some washes and
pastels, you can achieve a lot of depth.
Regarding this particular hopper, I made two acrylic washes made of blue mixed with harvest yellow. The mix wasn’t perfect to have color variation and streaking patterns appear on the surface. To have plenty of time to work the paint around, I pre-emptively added water to the matte surface, and also added dots here and there of pure harvest yellow, mixing it directly on the model with a large flat brush.
 |
| Subtle streaking with green and harvest yellow acrylic washes |
When done and dry, I ground pastel chalks; pure green and lime green. Once again, with a flat brush, I dabbed the surface and blended the powder with the gritty matte paint. The trick was not to add pigment everywhere, but randomly in the middle of the panels. This lighter color would replicate how the buckled panels catch lights. In some way, we can say I forced the shadows and highlights with this technique. Military modellers would call it post-shading, or pre-shading… or whatever expression they use for that. Basically, it’s about adding color variation to the surface and using it to creates fake shadows that enhance the 3D aspect of the model. The smaller the scale, the sharpest contrast will be required.
When I was
satified with my work, I simply sealed everything will dullcoat. This step blends
the pigments and tone everything down. It will be also easier later to apply
various washes and effects with oil paints.
Subtle color variations with regular powdered pastels
In terms of
details, I also added the COTS placards which were soldered to the ribs on the
prototype. This is a nice modification that I preferred to do when the initial
acrylic washes were done because I didn’t want weird streaking patterns around
the placards.
 |
| A gritty and varied surface showing rain streaking |
That said,
in an excess of zeal, I added steel end platforms over the coupler draft boxes.
Seems I was ill advised since these old hoppers didn’t have such a safety
measure. The will be removed later when I continue the weathering process.
No comments:
Post a Comment