Hornby Seacow's provide test piece

A new addition to my weathering palette is Abteilung's oil paints. I bought the rust shades and tried them out on this Hornby Seacow with very impressive results. I think that these oils will have a limited range of uses at the moment (at least until I gain more experience with them) for my rolling stock as they are quite clearly ideally suited to slab sided steel wagons. Maybe I can talk one of my AMRC colleagues to let me have a go at some of their American wagon stock.

The wagons had been weathered using Tamiya pigments already, the oils were used to create the rusty spots with staining streaking down from the sides. Just a small amount on a round brush or cocktail stick is enough for the smaller spots which are developed using a flat brush moistened with thinners in vertical streaks. I finished the effect with a light misting of track grime from an airbrush.

Knockomie locomotive progress

I've been working on three new loco's for use on Knockomie, a Class 24, Class 26 and Class 37. The Cl 24 and 26 are both in BR blue, the Cl 26 has been re-numbered to 26037 and also carries a Highland Stag logo from Inverness TMD from Fox Transfers. It's a little over size I think but from a distance it looks acceptable. Both have been weathered.

The Cl 37 is in Trainload Metals livery and is also weathered for use on Knockomie much later in the period that this layout can cover (1975-1992) and will go well with a short rake of Bachmann steel coil wagons that I have just finished weathering, along with a Dapol Tiphook covered steel wagon and various kit built steel carrying wagons I have either built or have planned. Weathering these loco's followed a standard method I use with pleasing results. 

I use Maskol on the windows then an airbrush to apply a light base colour of dirt on the underframes. For the 37 I sprayed around the recessed details on the body side before using a cotton bud to wipe off the excess in downward vertical strokes then added a final light misting to even up the grime layer. The roof and bonnets were done with Railmatch roof dirt with a blob of black added to the airbrush cup and then doing the sooty exhaust staining. After a couple of days for the paint to harden a little I used Tamiya pigments sets to highlight details on the bogies and roof with mud, dark rust, soot and oil stain colours. 

I had some excess track dirt paint mixture left over from the airbrush painting and used this as a wash on the cab fronts of the 24 and 26 then wiping away with a flat brush moistened with thinners to tone it down and get a nice streaky effect. I also tried out a new weathering product that I bought recently from www.snmstuff.co.uk, Abteilung weathering oils. Just a little dab on the cab front of 26037 then a flat brush with thinners used with vertical strokes leaves a very slight rust spot and streak - I'll try something a little closer to dirt or black on a future project though. 

Some final touches like scuffed dirt on the snowploughs from the couplings and on the cab doors from the driver kicking at the bottom corner to open sticky doors (apparently this is a common weathering mark). Final details will be the buffer beam details and to remove the masking.

26037 sits on the siding approaching the barrow crossing.

Side view of 26037.

Front view of 26037 featuring the weathering oils effects.

37514 sits in the siding at Knockomie.

37514's roof detail highlighted with Tamiya weathering pigments.