first attempt at weathering!

[Wiredup]

This is the first time I tried to weather anything... and I over did it I think...

What I did was dab my brush to grab a bit of of Trueline Warm Black, and then drenched the brush in dirty, dirty thinner. But before brushing it off on a towel or my painting board... I started to work it onto the RDC pulling as much of the black through the loco as I could.

The places I really over did it are on the sides near the ends of the loco, and on the exhaust fans on the top (which are pretty caked with black thinner)

I'm overly not happy with my first attempt, but think it could easily become one of my fav parts of the hobby...

In fact I think locomotive modification is easily becoming my fav already, I haven't though about laying track in weeks since I started on my kitbashes!

 

[Art Decko]

Congratulations for diving into the world of weathering!

Realistic weathering can be challenging because it's one of those many things where "mindsight" does not necessarily match eyesight. In other words, the way something looks and the way you think it looks might be very different.

For example: what color is a shadow? Some would say "black", even though shadows usually are not black. A shadow falling on green grass is usually dark green, not black.

I'm not a MRRer, I'm a card modeler, but I do all my own graphics, which are heavily weathered. I have found it very useful to take digital photos of real-life examples of whatever I'm trying to portray, then study them on my pc. That helps me get around creating what I "think" something looks like and instead get closer to what it really looks like. My weathering techniques have become much more realistic with this practice.

Different types of weathering can be very complex, lots of subtleties in shading, pattern and color. Maybe studying photos will help you get closer to whatever effects you want to achieve.

Good luck and keep at it!

 

[60103]

I think the exhaust fans look OK.
The one end of the roof, though, looks as if it's been through the woods on its side. You probably need a good photo to work from.
Passenger cars were sent through the car washers regularly, so the sides tended to be clean but with the paint washed out. The roof didn't get that sort of attention.
Dirt tended to be uniform along a surface. The flat ends attracted dirt (like the back of a station wagon), worse in rain. RDCs were aluminium so the silver areas would pick up dirt but didn't show colour wear.

 

[Triplex]

Most photos of RDCs I've seen show them fairly clean.

 

[nkp174]

I'd recommend trying some chalk the next time, so if you aren't happy, you can wash it off. It looks fine for the RIP track, IMO.

I started weathering with toy train freight cars. My first steam locomotive weathering job was a $12 Life Like 0-4-0t.