Weathering powders and stuff on its way finally, get a email from ehattons a HOUR before there 2PM next day delivery cut off apparently they forgot to put on their delivery options that aerosals and liquids won't be carried by royal mail (I had picked the before 1pm next day RM option) so they had to ask my permission to change to Yodel which is courier service since only couriers dispatch liquids and aerosals now.
Anyway, long story short ehattons has a lovely live chat service you can use on there website and got it resolved pretty quick, mind you Yodel is quite annoying as a delivery service as they hand off to local couriers when it get over to your area, my last delivery by yodel came at 5:30pm after waiting around all day (I didn't know they used local couriers).
While dealing with all this I've been doing abit of research into the Humbrol weathering powders to get a general idea of what I'm liking to encounter with the models and have a general idea of what is going to be annoying and what isn't by makers in a good to bad scale:
Locos: Dapol, Bachmann then Hornby(satin finishes on non-weathered locos = urgh) - Dapol are apparently the easiest to apply weathering powders to then bachmann, Hornby models which are not factory weather (spray across the loco -.- ) are generally in satin finish, with weathering powders you need a matt finish so may have to spray before applying which is annoying.
Wagons: Dapol, Bachmann/Hornby: All 3 major providers for wagons are easy to weather with powders and look pretty good to when done up from picture evidence.
Coaches: All are noted to be pretty annoying with weathering powders on body work, bogies and buffers will be fine but the finish on bodywork causes weathering powder to not stick very well so I may have to get some decal fix and apply that to body to ensure powders stay on.
First victim for weathering is Departmental Olive Green Brake Van, not strictly steam era but I liked the colours and its based on a SR design:
2nd victims of weathering will be these 3 20ton steel sided wagons, they are noted to be lime stone only type:
Not a 3rd victim, but hopefully doing the wagons above will provide some idea of how the weathering powders handle on models, so heres my Ivatt 4 Flying Piggy:
As you can probably tell from the pictures the wagons are really a smooth finsh and quite frankly really plastic like in appearance and do not represent to me personally what a model train should be like, it doesn't give off "I'm a model depicting real railways" but more a "I'm a toy train" which doesn't suit my taste.
Alot of people are afraid to weather their expensive models and rightfully so, however the beauty of weathering powders are they can be easily removed by just water before you apply any matt varnish to seal it all in. So if it doesn't look right, pull out the rag and start cleaning, no harm done in the end.
The art of weathering is also a manner of getting something close to the prototypical to, rust in areas where steam and water is likely to have interacted, white and limescale from safety and the wash plugs should you be depicting a limescale rich water area of the railways and also HOW weathering interacted with the locos on the real things.
This is a big important factor I have to keep in mind when I begin my weathering project is on real life locos weathering came from two sources, downward from the top of the boiler to the running plates with rain and soot from the exshaust and upwards from the track to go across the drive wheels/connection rods, cyclinders and the underside of the running board. Keeping these in mind and also the above of where steam is likely to interact with the parts I should be able to achieve something similar to a 1950s working loco.
So what have I decided on weather levels?
The brake van is likely going to recieve a light to medium level of weathering using dark earth powder and a mixture of black and smoke powder blended to create a dusty feel to the roof and down on the wood work. Rust will be applied to the bogie and general metal work at the bottom and the wood panelling will recieve dark earth to create a 5-10 years of wood weathering, hopefully I will be able to achieve a darker wood colour to it.
The 20tonners are going to be subjected to quite abit of rust, iron oxide, dark earth and smoke/black powder to really give them a real in use look and I hope to actually find out my acrylics and paint a few of the planks on the inside of the wagons to show they have been replaced over time. I consider mineral wagons to be beat up, well rusted and well worn so I am hoping to achieve this with more liberal uses of the iron oxide powder and rust powder and mix in some dark earth.
The ivatt 4 Flying Pig I am somewhat going back and forth, I would like to give it a really used and heavy weathered look like the picture in my last post but at the same time I'm wondering if a medium to heavy level of weathering will be more suitable. I do want to dedicate the Flying Pig to hauling the wagons and freight trains on my layout but do I want it at the level of Barry scrapyard condition or just getting close with more rust on boiler, cyclinders, wheels and chimney? Its a hard decision for me and I think I will collate more photos tomorrow as I wait for the powders to be delivered to see what would be suitable level of weathering.
Hopefully I'll be able to show atleast one weathering result by the weekend, I have to say I've never been quite so excited to start fiddling with things after so long.