Weathering an MTH water tower

I just used several light oversprays of Floquil's grimy black on this one. 

Jim

Hey Jim - Pleasure conversing with you. By the way,  I notice from what seems to be a base on the bottom I guess simulating concrete Etc. How did you do this?

Thanks very much

Jim, I like the color scheme, I painted mine with similar colors, but I especially like the stone pieces around the perimeter of the platform for the model to hide the lip.

The non scale ladder drives  me nuts. I suggest 1/48 plastrut ladder.

Tom -In what way is it not scale? What I mean is the length, width etc. Is it easily removed?

Jim, that looks great. I really like your weathering job. I like when things look used but not beat to heck.

Thanks, guys. 

Those "paving stones" are squares of travertine marble tile, sold on a fiberglass backing sheet for tile trim work. If you pop them off the backing, they are great for all sorts of stone items on the layout.

Here are some other examples of this type of tile:

Jim

Trackahead posted:

Tom -In what way is it not scale? What I mean is the length, width etc. Is it easily removed?

I believe the MTH water tower was originally a G scale Pola water tower

Look at the rungs on the ladder, don't they look very fAR apart ? Doesn't the ladder look too wide ?  Just curious. 

"I believe the MTH water tower was originally a G scale Pola water tower"

That would explain the ladder, the unbelievably oversized spout and the huge turnbuckles on the tank bands.

Ok now I see what you are saying. Actually I would have never caught the width etc of the ladder.  But for someone like who has one foot in the prototype world and one foot out, it is fine for me. Tom, I did see the Plastruct O scale ladder on Hobbylinc If I decide to make the change.

Thanks all - Great thread

Jim - Looking at the tiles that you posted, were did you purchase this size? I have researched Lowe's and HD and cannot seem to locate these.

Thanks very much

My  MTH Water Tank is not as nice as Jim's but Hienke's weathering is a big improvement over the toylike original decoration.

Very nice Dewey. Was the weathering done with paint or pastels?

Trackahead posted:

Jim - Looking at the tiles that you posted, were did you purchase this size? I have researched Lowe's and HD and cannot seem to locate these.

Thanks very much

You never know what's going to be in stock at Lowe's or HD. I check the tile aisle periodically and grab the smaller sizes when they show up.

Jim

Ok thanks Jim

All of the ideas here are really great, thanks to all.

I too am attempting to weather/age my MTH water tower

here is what I have so far:

Tom not bad, looks great. Did you use a brush or airbrush? It is basically all dark brown paint? Alos, did you prime the plastic first?

Thanks for the compliment !

I am almost done can post finished tower tomorrow I hope.

I am a novice at this and do not have an air brush so I used a variety of items and techniques:

I took the tower partially apart, taking the tower off the base and roof off.

I over-sprayed everything with ModelMaster Flat, Dulcote can be used too.  I did that because I use a lot of powders .  I gave the tower partial  wash using diluted Woodland Scenics Black 1220, then applied Doc O Brien's  weathering powders with pad and fingers !  Also used Pan Pastels and Testor's  Rust pen. The wood supports were base painted with Floquil roof brown.  I over-sprayed, lightly, from a distance to seal the work as I went along.

I used Woodland scenics scenery glue on base and covered it with ballast. After that set I used wet water and more diluted scenic glue to set the base. Today I applied some powders to darken the ballast and added some weeds.

Tom

Jim Policastro posted:

Thanks, guys. 

Those "paving stones" are squares of travertine marble tile, sold on a fiberglass backing sheet for tile trim work. If you pop them off the backing, they are great for all sorts of stone items on the layout.

Here are some other examples of this type of tile:

Jim

Now that is a neat idea!  Might do that to dress-up my water tower...

-Dustin

Here's my MTH water tower before I installed it on the layout.  I replaced the ladder with a Plastruct one, painted it, weathered it, and added a spot light that turns on when the tower is activated.  I removed all the bands and replaced them with more scale-looking ones, and also corrected the scale on the gauge showing remaining water volume:

-Dustin

Frizzinbee - Nice work as well. All items in this thread are superb looking. I am not an expert in weathering and I do not want to mess this up when starting. By the way, the original colors of the MTH tower, was this taken from any specific prototype? And did everyone just come up with their own paint schemes?

Frizzinbee,  Great work. Something for us to aspire to.

I am mostly finished with my MTH water tower: