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Written by Bill Rutherford

By John "Grunge" Drye and Bill "Ruined Trains" Rutherford

A number of folks have asked us about the techniques we use to reduce the value of our Micro-Trains™ collections.  It's easiest to "ruin" a car soon after you buy it, before it becomes outrageously expensive -- then never, never look at a collectors' listing.

The first step is to take a look at prototype cars, to see how nature ruins the railroads' collections.  If you model the modern era, all you need to do is to continue to photograph the train after the engines pass.  If you model an older era, there is tremendous variety of published material with good color pictures of dirty, rusted dented, stained and grungy rolling stock.  Just what we're looking for!   The pictures provide a feel for the variety in weathering on the prototype, as well as giving a starting point for weathering specific cars.  Pick a prototype car to try to match.

There are as many weathering techniques as there are colors of dirt.  Two of the most popular are painting with washes and drybrushes (lots of thinned paint and just a little paint, respectively) and dusting with artists' chalks.  You can also use an airbrush.  This month, we'll describe the first technique.

Since most factory paint jobs are "shiny", Dullcote® the car before you start in order to allow the weathering paint to grip.  For a typical grungy boxcar, start with a wash of dirty brown.  Find a color that matches dirt.  A medium, grayish brown is a good place to start.  Try the military colors section in a general hobby store or PollyS® Rail Brown at Obie's (or your local model railroad store).

It's easiest to use a thin wash initially, then use a second coat if the car is still too clean.  Grab a large brush and dip it into the paint and gob the paint into a container filled with water (water-based paints are much easier to work with).  The wash should be the consistency of chicken soup.  Flow the thinned paint over the car, brushing vertically.  The vertical brushstrokes simulate the effect of rainfall on the sides and roof.  Wait for the paint to dry (this IS an exciting hobby!).   Several cars can be weathered at once, so the first one will be dry by the time the last one is finished.  If the car still looks too clean compared to the prototype, apply a second wash.

After the washes have dried, use the "drybrush" technique to highlight lighter-colored areas on the car, such as roofwalks or ladders.  Find a color that approximately matches the original color on the car (before you ruined it).  Mix about 50:50 with white.  Use a wide, flat brush.  Take just a little paint on the end of the brush and wipe nearly all of it off on a cloth.  Lightly brush the paint across the roofwalk (or ribs, if there isn't a roofwalk), ladders and any raised surface that catches light.  Don't overdo it.  The idea is to trick the eye into believing that the lighter colored areas are catching the light.

This is the fun part.  The drybrush technique can also be used to represent scratches and dents by using aluminum paint brushed horizontally, rust stains by using rust (PollyS® makes a good color) brushed vertically, and chemical, cement or grain spills by using yellow, white or tan vertically.

Look at the trucks on some prototype cars.  They are usually a grungy, rusty brown or dark gray.  Drybrushing the trucks is one of the easiest ways to make a car look more realistic.  The dark plastic used on most models is a stark color seldom found in nature.

We'll talk about chalks next time.

If you do make the mistake of looking up the value of that car you just ruined, it helps to repeat: "I'm a modeler, not a collector, I'm a modeler, not a collector."