How do I weather wagons below the sole bar?

Hi All.    Weathering wagons. as a newbie looks very good to me, but, when it comes to the area below the sole bar, how do you do that without clogging the bearings ?  Masking tape may work? but, May should leave a blank spot, and a sticky residue? and the wheels and axles , shiny plastic or whatever would look out of place. Best wishes. Kevin

I use a dull/matt varnish like https://www.humbrol.com/us-en/shop/paints/acrylic-paints/49-varnish-matt-12ml-acrylic-varnish.html then weathering powders

Hi Ron.    Thank you for your reply. This is “ virgin territory “ to me, I have a set of weathering powders, not started on.And that is as far as I got. But I will experiment .   Best wishes. Kevin

Hi Kevin.

Could you perhaps let us know which brand and which colours of powder you currently have. I find, with around 500 weathered items, that different powders and the differing plastic and metal finishes require various approaches for the best results.

In general I will apply mixed dark earth, black and rust below solebars but not all prototypes need that. Indeed some, according to traffic, weathered to a dirty white which is notoriously difficult to represent with powders.

It might pay to invest in a 0.05 or 0.1 mapping pen to ink in the lines between spring leaves or to pick out the detail of coil springs before powdering.   

I sometimes add special effects such as spills or spatter done using hair spray as both liquifier for the powder and fixative. Wash the applicator brush straight away to avoid that being fixed by the hair spray!

Hi Rick.  Thank you for your reply. The set of weathering powders are “Eazi” weathering powder set 12x10ml.Whether that means anything to you? Not being an expert, by any stretch of the imagination ? I “picked up” the first brand I came across.  Best wishes. Kevin

I haven't come across Eazi weathering powders.

I use AIM which are pretty hard to find these days, or failing that Carrs which are not that common either.  Both will grab on most items quite readily and both brands can be freely mixed and blended.  Most jobs seem to benefit from a blend of colours as weathering is almost never a single shade.


Others I have tried and will never use again are Humbrol (coarse, poorly ground, almost gritty and utterly useless since they don't grab at all) and Tamiya (greasy and less easy to remove it you don't like the finished effect; generally preferred by the war-gamers rather than railway modellers I believe).  I have from time to time encountered other brands but none so easy to use as AIM.  


The other thing a powder-weatherer needs is a good quality and really soft brush.  I invested a couple of quid in a red sable which has remained my trusty weathering brush for a few years now.  I do use others - and famously I use a 1" house-painting brush for effects and roofs which gives a few "serious" modellers a real does of the heebie-jeebies when I produce it at a session - and also have a can of Poundland / Poundworld hair spray on hand.  The cheaper the better since it is used as a  fixative on some jobs, as a wetting agent on others (which will be fixed very quickly upon drying of course) and to achieve spotting or blobbing effects when required.  Beware of over-spraying a nicely-worked job though.  Even a tiny amount of hair spray can liquify the powders and ruin your work.  

Hi Rick.  Thank you. I had better buy some preowned wagons to practice on. Speaking of “ Wargamers” at a recent model railway exhibition I asked for “dirty track paint “ but instead I had purchased “interactive AK 083” Enamel Track Wash” , but didn’t realise until I got home. This is really for “Tank Tracks”, not Railway tracks.
I will have to invest in a Red Sable brush myself , up until now I have chosen poundworld.      
Best wishes. Kevin