@chris a posted:I have used several methods over the past couple of years. I am doing about 2 dozen H21a Hoppers that will run together in a single train and wanted reasonably consistent look on the coal hoppers. Really trying to have them look used and weathered, but not abused !
I have had really good luck on the red oxide cars mixing a thin acrylic wash, about 75% water, 25% craft paint, and a few drops of 91% alcohol. I ended up mixing 2 colors - Burnt Umber (50%) and Nutmeg Brown (Apple Barrel #20521E).
The wash when dry leaves a flat finish with a fine texture. The other nice feature is you can fade the lettering by just applying the wash over the lettering. I haven't felt the need to go back with pan pastels, or chalk powders. On one car, I decided to deviate from my written down formula and didn't care for it, so with a toothbrush and some mild dishwashing soap I removed most of what I had done, and went back to the original formula. I did these cars 3 years apart and its tough to tell them apart, the last 2 photos show the new batch, the hoppers done earlier have the wood blocks in them so I could see how well I was duplicating the weathering.
Airbrush or paint brush?