How do you treat your road vehicles ?

I have a couple of Limited edition buses that I am going to use on the road overbridge on Lesspoint . At the moment I am in two minds as to weathering them as being a small run limited edition it may effect their future value . However for use on the layout they are going to be far too shiny straight out the box so they really should have a minimum of a coat of matt varnish , the tyres greyed and some subtle dirt added .

How do you treat your vehicles ?

Richard,
I'm not real up on this, so you might want to check out what I'm going to say.
Could you just use chalks to weather them. I'm thinking that if needed in the future they could be removed without much trouble.

Wayne

Wayne

Removable Weathering ?  - Now thats an interesting idea .

I will have to give it some thought as it would need to be a method for example that didnt just come off if you needed to pick up the item.

Thanks for the suggestion.

As above: use chalk, pastels or weathering powders. All will wash and wipe off to leave the models pristine again if you change your mind.

My wife bought me some nice weathering powders at an exhibition some years ago. I was building a white metal Bristol VRT at the time and after painting it up and decorating it I used some mud tones around the wheels and wheel arches and back along the lower sides. I proudly showed the results to my wife and she said "What did you do that for?". I explained what the weathering powders were for and her response was, "I would never have bought them for you if I had known that that's what they were for!"

:thud :thud  :thud

Weathering is a personal choice Richard - some do,  some don't.

As an example,  all my stock will be weathered - it's just the way I like it but Bob (the Boss) keeps all his pristine and a glance at Barchester will prove that it does look superb. So, it's down to you.

As Wayne and Jim have said, if you use chalks and pastels,  you can just wash it off at some future date.

I found chalks didn't take on high gloss cars. The method I like is to repaint the car with enamel paint - either matching the original colour or with something new - then while the enamel is still slightly tacky I rub powdered pastel all over it. I used pale brown here.  Greys work well too.



This is the only view of it in its original state that I have [cropped from the edge of a photo]



 It is a cheap model though.

Mike
 

[user=412]BLG[/user] wrote:

[user=373]Wheeltapper[/user] wrote:

I have a couple of Limited edition buses that I am going to use on the road overbridge on Lesspoint . At the moment I am in two minds as to weathering them as being a small run limited edition it may effect their future value . However for use on the layout they are going to be far too shiny straight out the box so they really should have a minimum of a coat of matt varnish , the tyres greyed and some subtle dirt added .

How do you treat your vehicles ?

Did you buy the vehicles to look at, use or to "collect"?

Having had to face a the same question as yours I have placed the limited edition model on the display shelf to admire and acquired another "similar" non-limited sample and weathered that.

 

I must admit it was something I didnt even consider when I bought the model ( a Bristol Half Cab) as it fitted with the layout period and was a type I had often travelled on . I dont normally think twice about weathering any of the railway locos and rolling stock but when an auctioneer friend of mine mentioned that he was only achieving very high prices for limited edition  models in pristine condition with immaculate boxes that it made me hesitate .

I will go ahead and weather it anyway but will first try the chalk method .

Off topic but what engine is  the showmans on your avatar ?

 

 

 

 

 

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Weathering is a personal choice Richard - some do,  some don't.

Quite agree Peter; if you can do weathering like Mike C then do it, if you do like me, then don't (or get someone like Mike to do it for you:lol:)

Can recommend using the pastels though, you can get some nice effects and they are only about 50p per stick, but try it out on something you don't mind ruining just in case ;-)

[user=412]BLG[/user] wrote:

[user=373]Wheeltapper[/user] wrote:

[user=412][/user]
Off topic but what engine is  the showmans on your avatar ?
 

1925 Garrett Showmans Tractor

Lady JJ

PU7494

Bryan

Very nice - I have liked the Garretts (almost as much as Avelings) since I looked after  the Garrett Showmans "Leiston Town" for several years for  its owner at the time.

[user=373]Wheeltapper[/user] wrote:

Very nice - I have liked the Garretts (almost as much as Avelings) since I looked after  the Garrett Showmans "Leiston Town" for several years for  its owner at the time.

Did you live in Suffolk in those days Richard ?

Not then but I did live in the Woodbridge area for a while and did quite a bit of voluntary work at the Garrett Museum at Leiston .I really liked the area around there especially Saxmundham , Aldeburgh and Southwold.

[user=373]Wheeltapper[/user] wrote:

How do you treat your vehicles ?

Hi Richard

I use washes to give the base colours - normally working wet in wet.  Usually once its dry I spend just as long carefully cleaning it all off again.  No matter how hard you try you cant clean it all and you tend to get dirt left in places you cant reach, most of the time this is the same as on the real thing.  As always, work from a photo of the prototype.

Heres a couple of mine - These are particularly grubby examples.



I always spray road vehicles with Dullcote or this http://shop.warlordgam…tt-varnish-spray-37-p.asp

HTH

Jim

Rule 1 : Whether to weather is always a personal choice.

I don't really possess weathering skills at this stage and have just dabbled with a little smudged dirtwash here and there so far.  And that is on run-of-the-mill production items.

I don't modify limited editions in any way.  Whilst I purchase to run rather than to exhibit or to invest I do respect the possibility that they may accrue more value than normal production runs over time.

So far I haven't extended my attentions to the bus fleet which are all pristine when placed outside on the layout.  They do get a little dusty out there and carefully cleaned when they come back in again.

 I have doubts about how effective pastel / powder would be on a highly glossed surface with nothing to key into.  By the same token a road vehicle may not respond as well to a session with the airbrush as a rail one but could rather be better weathered by dry-brushing.

Suffice to say I shall not be tampering with any of my Code 3 buses nor anything with a numbered certificate.  Anything else might get some treatment when I feel I have gained more expertise in this area.

You must do as you see fit.