Weathering on the Union Pacific Cheyenne Division

The locomotives and the cars look like they have been running through Wyoming. How does John Gray succeed with weathering a dry landscape? This is one of Phil Gazzano’s real strengths, to take a photograph that John provides him of a locomotive and to weather it so it looks like how it would in real life. Phil will demonstrate a technique that he and John came up with, a quick down and dirty method of weathering cars. With an airbrush he applies a light misting across the bottom of the car first, making sure to turn on the air vent. The paint he uses is Floquil rail brown, a mix of 50% paint and 50% paint thinner. It is a custom micron japonese airbrush that creates a super fine mist. He finishes one side and moves onto the other. He uses about 25 pounds of air pressure. The key is to create a very fine and subtle effect.

Phil has a stencil that he has cut out of paper with a slit that is wider at the bottom, about a 16th of an inch thick. This is used for bringing out detail on the vertical rivet rows. He presses the paper up against the car on the seam line, and sprays over the stencil, applying more towards the bottom. This brings out the detail on the rivets on the train. This is all to give the impression of a car that has been through a heavy rain storm and dust and grit from the roof has run down the rivets. He changes the color to Floquil grime overspray to flatten out the overall tone, running over every other panel to give a subtle tone. To learn more weathering tips and techniques visit the Model Railroad Academy archives.