Cattle Wagon #1: Weathering

This is Bachmann's cattle wagon painted and weathered using acrylics.

One of my favorite railways is the Great Western (I think it's because of Duck!), and I like to study their handsome engines and freight cars. Their dark gray cattle wagons became almost completely white because of the heavy exposure to the elements in main line running!

If there is one feature about cattle cars on the main lines, which have traveled vast distances, it is the dust and grime they pick up from the ballast on the tracks, plus the occasional spots and kinks of rust and dust! Even if you're painting wagons for a layout of a real railway, whimsically themed, even for Thomas, I believe it is so important to consider how the rolling stock appear based on being effected by their environment, times and seasons, and the era in which the layout is based.

I use FolkArt Acrylic Paints, which have been useful for me to paint rolling stock. I first repaint the car's underframe black, the body a dark brown, and the rook a medium grey. then I dry-brush my weathering colors. I work from dark to light, first a nutmeg color for dust, then terracotta for rust.

After giving the characteristic "dusting" with a light tan-shaded color, I added the rust color to the bars, metal plates and bolts. I do the same lightly with the underframe.

On each end, there is some rust on the metal pieces as well, and on the buffers. Even with the bulky couplers, I'd say the model looks pretty good eh? This is one out of four I have for the "Cows" episode that Edward pulls.

Here is Edward with his cars on the main line. I still need to get one more to weather, which is the one that is mostly brown with a darker roof that gets left behind! See another photograph of the finished scene I made posted on the bottom of my second post...

Anyway, studying from photographs and some reading can make a huge difference in how you paint, especially wagons.

Happy Modelling!