Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

It was then time for the horror show.  A word of warning - this level of weathering is not for the faint of heart.  If you value pristine plastic and the best efforts of manufacturers to duplicate "off the assembly line" vintage stuff, this post may turn your stomach.

You have to understand the timeframe I'm modeling for what I set out to do with this locomotive.  1976.  Virtually every railroad in the northeast has declared bankruptcy.  The U.S. government has attempted to save the day and establish the Consolidated Rail Corporation to do a takeover and attempt to revamp freight service from the refuse of once mighty corporate entities.  Not much worked well at the beginning, and it DIDN'T LOOK PRETTY. 

I love the pictures that Charlie puts up of the rainbow years - you could see just about everything pulling cars to and fro.  Including Alco C630s formerly running on the Reading Railroad, purchase in 1966.  Dirty, slapdash, grimy, rusty and powerful.  That's the look I'm going for.  In the world of pictures, I'll try to show all of you the method to the weathering madness on this beast.  A lot of these techniques are repeats from prior efforts, but I never do exactly the same thing twice.

First is a fade coat (in this case two).  Tamiya base mixed with isopropyl alchohol and applied with a brush to all of the painted surface of the locomotive above the trucks (hopefully missing windows, etc.  Once it dries to a white film, I take a stiff brush and rub the extra away.  A good bit of it rests in the crevasses of the plastic parts - which is an excellent thing for later weathering layers.


   

Next I dappled all of the louvered panels with black paint.  The louvers do get a nice paint job out of the factory, but after sucking in diesel exhaust and road dust, black took over.  I also hit the roof with a smattering of black paint, especially around the exhaust stack.

   

Then I place a couple of drops of Vallejo Burnt Umber into a plastic cup and added some isopropyl alcohol to thin it to a wash.  And wash I did.  Started on the roof and worked my way down the sides and carefully hit portions of the front and rear of the locomotive.  The nice thing about using a wash like this is you can always hit what you created with either more wash or more straight alchohol to add or subtract from it.  The white refuse from the Tamiya base makes the wash stick in each crevice, which makes things a whole lot easier.

   

This doesn't look nearly as corrupt when I place it on my layout among the lights and background...

   

Hit the trucks and fuel tank with another round of Burnt Umber - less diluted this time.  While I thought about it, I also hit the couplers with a dose of my rust blend - mostly orange acrylic with a little bit of brown mixed in.  With all of that drying, I got out my Pan Pastels and pulled up the photos of 6757 for the final weathering.  I started with my smallest applicator - these are all makeup brushes that I bought as a kit.  I start with rust in particular places on the locomotive that tie into the weathering I did with the wash.

       

I then take a larger brush and add rust to the roof and blend the rust areas that I applied with the smaller brush.

   

and then it's just time to grab and even bigger brush and get the black powder out to add even more filth - top, side, front, rear and especially the walkways.  Here's a couple of shots without the railings.

       

Railings and couplers next, and the next time you see her, I think she'll be complete.