Weathered Steel

Well, I thought I was done...

Chris needs a scale track too, and there were a few things I thought I'd do differently after I finished the first one. So there is more to come.

I did start the storm guards for mine, and I'm really happy with the finish I came up with. I started by painting it with a Rail Tie Brown paint marker. This is Floquil, which isn't readily available anymore, but Woodland Scenics makes them. At some point I plan on comparing colors to the much larger selection available at art stores too. In this case, the exact color doesn't really matter, I'd just suggest starting with brown.

Since styrene is pretty smooth, trying to brush (or in this case, draw) it on tends to streak a lot. Since the tip on this one was well mashed anyway, I just smushed it straight down like I was stippling. I then immediately started using Pan Pastels in the same manner, with neutral gray shade, and a couple of browns to get a random slightly rusty look, then brightened it with the neutral gray tint. I also did some on a larger sheet of styrene to see how it would work over larger areas, and to make it easier to see.

Here are some in progress photos:

These are all completed, but at slightly different angles. The lighting makes a big difference as you can see. The wood skewer in the last photo is there just to give the camera something to focus on.

I'm really happy with the results, and it looks even more amazing in person specifically because the angle and lighting really highlight the variations well. I'm going to play around with the technique for the interior or gondolas and hoppers, and I'm also experimenting with different color applications for concrete and asphalt.