Some weathered models

[Scubaidh Dubh]

I started doing railway modelling in the late 1970s in my teens after serving my time as an Airfix Apprentice.
It wasn't long before I noticed that other modelling disciplines were engaging in a practice called "weathering", particularly the Military guys.
I can't recall exactly when but given I was getting a lot of my railway knowledge from the massive collection of Bradford & Barton books at the local library, I started to notice that steam locos were actually pretty grubby things at least in the 1960s views predominating in those staple albums.
Fast forward to 1996 when I got back into the hobby seriously, I had dabbled again with those other modelling disciplines again in between times and knew that was the way I'd be going with railway modelling in future.
It was really about ten years later after I had invested in the equipment and gained a lot of skill and confidence that I realised this was were my "special skill" was.

The following are a selection of models I've finished over the years.
Some of you may have seen some before but please bear with me.




There are many more on an old memory stick but given I no longer have a suitable device, those remain unavailable for now but the above will hopefully give a taster of my work.
What astounds me is that I used to be a lot more productive than I appear to be these days but then it's been a slow process getting set up over the two and a half years since I moved home. Given everything else I have to do I probably shouldn't be so hard on myself!

Davy.

 

[John57sharp]

Some nice work there Davy

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

Thanks John.
Like I said, there are many more early images but I can't retrieve all of them right now.
I do have more recent examples though so I'll keep feeding them into this thread as time goes on.

Davy.

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

A few more examples for today.



View attachment 212439

 

[Max M]

I'm sure it would be appreciated if you could share some of your techniques and the materials used.

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

Sure. There's nothing especially original or groundbreaking about the basic techniques. What I will say is that one of these jobs now, seems to come together over a longer time than they used to. Either I'm out of practice or I'm just harder to please these days.
I think the 4MT mogul here has been through the shops three times and I'm only just starting to be happy with it!

 

[John Duffy]

Nicely captured Davy. One thing I am starting to notice is that stock on a lot of layouts fits into one of three categories;

1) - out of the box, unweathered
2) - out of the box weathered - with that dreadful monotone effect. The quick squirt in the factory with an airbrush and give me more of your money type. Some of the overpriced effects are even worse but are as well ignored.
3) - completely overdone. The magazines have undoubtedly had an impact here in encouraging what might be described as "Last Years of Steam Syndrome" where everything looks like it is on its last legs.

What you are capturing - and there are a few of you on this forum who do it well - is that used, cleaned (at least to some extend) but maintained in working order look. I think it is easier to produce the extreme stuff and a lot harder to know when to stop and then how to produce that hint of cleaning. I don't remember the steam era but your rendition of 40 063 is spot on to how I remember them. That engine was always in and round Dundee and that is how it looked. Work stained but cared for.

Hopefully you find a way of retrieving your images as I'd like to see more.

John

 

[Alan]

I agree about knowing wheen to stop, I must admit I can be guilty of a touch of over weathering.

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

Just this last week, I returned to my Bachmann V2s and used some of the pencil techniques on them. It was the final touch that brought them to life, particularly 60970.

 

[Clarence3815]

What was your William Stanier? Andrews kit?

 

[John Duffy]

Very nice. They look cared for but used.

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

What was your William Stanier? Andrews kit?

That was Hornby RTR.
Apart from Gibson bogie wheels it was straight from the box.

 

[Ian N]

Hi Davy
Some absolutely sublime work there. Any chance you can do a step-by-step descriptive photoshoot of some of your future work?
I'm sure it'll be much appreciate, and not just by me!

All the best for the future.
Ian

 

[Roger Pound]

Just caught up with this thread. Excellent work - locos just as I recall seeing them.

Roger

 

[Scubaidh Dubh]

Hi Davy
Some absolutely sublime work there. Any chance you can do a step-by-step descriptive photoshoot of some of your future work?
I'm sure it'll be much appreciate, and not just by me!

All the best for the future.
Ian

Sure, Ian.

I shall do that soon. I will have a little more time when my redundancy comes through in a few weeks so I can use some of my time to enlighten those to whom the finishing is of interest.

I am going through a phase of experimenting with new materials and techniques right now, so very much learning as I go.

It's the first big evolutionary leap I've taken in about 12-13 years so I'm finding it very interesting.

One of the things I'm currently looking at is the gloss base finish. It's near impossible to really portray a loco well without some kind of representation of it -even under heavy weathering it's rarely completely hidden. For years I have used Klear/Future to provide that basic effect but I feel it has its limitations in terms of durability with some of the techniques I'm using.
I tried Ronseal at one point but that led to problems with the black V2 that took a great deal of work to get under control - I think that's a better starting point for a kit built and painted loco rather than an RTR model.
The search is on for something else that provides a suitable but perhaps more durable effect.

Davy.

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi Dave,

I remember many of these, nice to see them (and you) again.

Tim