Playing with Weathering...

Ok, I've talked occasionally with Super about weathering, if its good or bad, whether it is better to do or not, well I decided to have a play about.

I recently picked up a bottle of 'Humbrol Rust Wash', this is basically a very thin acrylic paint (almost ink) that contains a brownish colour with some copper mixed in. The idea with a wash is that you don't try to get an even covering necessarily, and you don't care if it runs or parts are left uncovered. Being thin it naturally runs and pools in crevices on the surface of whatever you use it on.

Anyway as a test subject I picked an HO/OO tatty plastic wagon that came in a job lot of wagons I recently received just to try it on as it resembles a metal sided wagon rather than a wooden planked one. I didn't try to be clever and get just rust where I wanted it, I just did a quick splosh all over to see how it looks. Also bear in mind that this was just a bare plastic model, no undercoat or other paint added, just a few simple decals...

Here is the model untouched;



After adding the wash and then letting it dry overnight here is the effect that I got, this looks not too bad in my opinion bearing in mind I spent all of 2 mins on this and just sploshed the wash. It has a slightly rusty look, but also gives it that look you get on train wagons where you get that film of reddish brown dust that seem to afflict all goods trains.

So what do you think guys? Any feedback/suggestions? Like I say this was a pure test and not intended to even end up as working model, might end up sitting in a siding as a piece of scenery or something...