Weathering a Coal Lorry

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I plan to have a coal lorry next to my coal depot, sitting on the weigh bridge. I have been scouring the web for a suitable candidate without success, so I have decided to have a go at a flat bed truck and make it look like a heavily used coal delivery lorry.

The subject for this small project is a 'Base Toys' Commer Flatbed. It has no markings, other than number plates:




As a load I bought a pack of Model Scenes coal sacks. They needed trimming and a bit of flash cutting off:




The first task will be to wash the lorry in soapy water to help with paint adhesion, and then give the whole vehicle a wash in black acrylic.

Bob(K)
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Looking forward to this project and watching with a keen interest.

Phill
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same here .


Brian(G)
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OK, the wash is now applied. I wash/paint one face of the vehicle at a time and allow to dry before turning it over to paint the next. Any excess paint is soaked off with tissue or a dry brush. The whole process takes a couple of hours including drying and this is what it looks like:







OK, it looks a bit of a mess, but the shine has gone from the red paint work and the detail of the truck is showing through.

Next it will be necessary to apply road dirt to the underside.

Bob(K)


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Very interesting.  It looks "coalie" already. :thumbs

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Right, now the application of some road dirt. My theory is that for this vehicle muck from the road will be heaviest underneath and on the lower edges of the vehicle, while coal dust will be on the upper surfaces to the rear. I do not want to cover the wheels in muck so for this stage i will mask them off:




This is followed up by a healthy spray of muck. I am using 'Dirty Down' Mid Brown. It dries very quickly and can be washed off if it all goes wrong:




Whilst at it the coal sacks received a dose of brown, to take away the plastic look and to give a base for some shading:




The next stage will be a 'dusting down' with a dry brush. This will bring out the detail of the tyres and blend in the original black wash - I hope!

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When I obtain another vehicle be it a commercial / lorry/ van or even a smart saloon I spray it in a matt or semi matt finish, somehow high gloss even on new cars or railway coaches just looks wrong in OO scale. Then I spray the tyres in a greyish matt finish, the only black tyres are on showroom models or when I've tarted up one of my own cars/ motor bike and I spray the tyres with one of those aerosol foams and the black doesn't last long.

If it is a model bus, van or box truck I also weather the roof since I doubt that area is washed that often much less polished. I weather the chassis with a track or underframe colour.

Hope this helps.
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The next task is to 'dust' dry brush. This brings up the high lights on the vehicle, dulls down the tyres from being black to a more realistic colour and takes away the gloss on the surface. I use Tamiya weathering pastes for this task:




For this model I have used light sand. It can be seen that this brings the detail out on the tyres and raised areas quite nicely:




Now the vehicle is starting to look a little more realistic. The final colour is a spray of flat black to represent the coal dust, again using Dirty Down spray:

Bob(K)

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[user=417]Tetley[/user] wrote:
When I obtain another vehicle be it a commercial / lorry/ van or even a smart saloon I spray it in a matt or semi matt finish, somehow high gloss even on new cars or railway coaches just looks wrong in OO scale. Then I spray the tyres in a greyish matt finish, the only black tyres are on showroom models or when I've tarted up one of my own cars/ motor bike and I spray the tyres with one of those aerosol foams and the black doesn't last long.

If it is a model bus, van or box truck I also weather the roof since I doubt that area is washed that often much less polished. I weather the chassis with a track or underframe colour.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tetley

Glad to find another vehicle weatherer. I agree with your comments about the gloss effect, also the colours are often too deep and stark on models for this scale. Using a Matt/satin coat is a good solution, although I try to avoid it as, if applied too thickly, it can cover detail as it runs into indentations. I also agree about the tyres which are never pure black and painting them dark grey, followed by weathering is a good option. I find leaving them black and dusting them with powders works quite well too.

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Well it is just about finished. Coal dust added, here are some shots of the truck with its load in various settings:



Delivering coal to White Farm near Middleton.


Delivering coal to White Farm near Middleton


The truck pulled up outside middleton Station, no doubt dropping off a sack or two.


Parked up by the Goods Shed at Upton, while a Jinty shunts coal empties in the background.

Another fun little project, which took about two hours overall. The longest times being waiting for the washes to dry. Going to try a couple of buses next…

Bob(K)

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More great pictures for the Upton to Dunton file. Lorry looks perfect Bob.
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Tick, VG, Bob.  What about a rope from the bottom of the front gate around the sacks to keep them safe?
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[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:
Tick, VG, Bob.  What about a rope from the bottom of the front gate around the sacks to keep them safe?

Good suggestion and one I considered, however, my recollections and certianly looking at photos on line suggest that 100cwt coal sacks were stacked loose and relied upon their weight to keep them in place. I am happy to be corrected though?

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Far be it from me, Bob.  I've never seen a coal truck.  I guess I was remembering sacks of wheat from my days on the farm.  They were diabolical bloody things - always trying to escape. 
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[user=11]Novice[/user] wrote:
[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:
Tick, VG, Bob.  What about a rope from the bottom of the front gate around the sacks to keep them safe?

Good suggestion and one I considered, however, my recollections and certianly looking at photos on line suggest that 100cwt coal sacks were stacked loose and relied upon their weight to keep them in place. I am happy to be corrected though?

Bob(K)

Very good job on the lorry mate. As for the rope, my Uncle Ron was a coal man and many a times i took a ride on the truck. He never roped it down, as you say the weight kept it down, also back then you hardly went far before your next of load, this was due to every one having coal fires back then.

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Very well done Bob(K)! I have several cars that could use some of your ideas. Just need the time to get it done.

Wayne

My Layout "The South Shore Line":
http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=509&forum_id=21
This video/animation was made in Adobe Flash Player, which is no longer supported or available for download.
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Love the weathering job, Novice, I'll send a few vehicles in the post for you to practise on and return. :lol::lol::lol:

I must confess to being a little concerned about the sacks though. Having lived in a coalfield area all my life, I've seen hundreds of coal lorries trundling about, a few still do, but never with sacks the size of those you have used. They are usually 1cwt sacks and would probably scale out well at half the size of those you've used.

Maybe worth thinking about???
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Roping of coal sacks:
I can testify that this is rarely done.
When I was a kid, I was saved from injury when a full sack came off a lorry on a bend and wrapped itself around a lamp post - the coal shooting either side of me.

Not a 'grate' experience.

http://dddioramas.webs.com/

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Hi Bob

A few comments if you dont mind.  First up I always superglue vehicles wheels in place and especially on the Base toys stuff ensure that the wheel is in the right place in relation to the bodyside.  Your last picture of the lorry facing away shows how our of line the front wheel is.  

Once dry I then rub the vehicle on some sandpaper to give a slight squareness to the bottom of the tyres.  This helps to give a sense that the vehicle is heavy.  

HTH

Jim

Jim Smith-Wright

Rule 1 - Model what you really see and not what you think you know!
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 I know it's in the background.but here's one I did earlier. It was a furniture van which I modified the chassis and load area, added rear view mirrors, licence  and operators disc  but. I feel more appropriately, turned the steered axle from straight.
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