Weathering 101

Coupler Weathering:



Weathered a pair of Kadee's today while weathering a Athearn car. I usually painted them tie brown and quit. I decided that was too plain! I lightly dusted the coupler with dark rust powder. You have to paint it first or the powder will not adhere. I go easy during the process or the paint

On my cellphone. I guess I got carried away lol.

Here's the tutorial as one.  Let me know if you take some more pictures or want me to add anything.


I wanted to make a post on how I weather cars and the techniques I use.

I like powders because it can be scrubbed off. I use Monroe Weathering Powders because they're self adhesive and come in a variety of colors. I use a set of make up brushes to apply colors.



It brushes nicely. I use the big brushes to spread out colors over the whole car. Such as grimy black. I use the smaller stiffer brushes to apply various colors to the car, trucks, wheels and couplers.



I apply it and then gently make a dusting movement to spread it around to get a desired effect. Before you weather a car, wash it and let it dry. Be careful how you handle it. Finger prints will show! And no amount of powders or top coat will hide it. The weathering may look to be a bit much at first, but, sealing it with dull coat will tone it down a lot.



Depending on what I'm after, I may add a second coat of powders. It's like a layer cake during the process of trying to get it where you want it. I like to use dark rust on the trucks and some light rust on springs and a very gentle dust coat of it on the truck. It gives depth to the truck. I do every car different as a whole fleet of real cars is different from one to another.  I like to look at prototype photos as a guide.


Some other tools I may suggest are helpful. I like using the Tamiya turn table set while I apply the top coat. I like to use bent needle nose pliers to hold small parts. I acquired the tray years ago and like to use it for the job because clean up is easy. I like to use Model Master paints because it's water based and goes on nicely. I like to paint the weights of cars to match the body. Especially Athearn cars. The powders will not stick to bare metal such as couplers and wheel sets. I use a yellow micro brush to apply these.


When I weather wheel sets,I like to paint the face of the wheels tie brown. I then use a q tip and rubbing alcohol to remove excess paint from the tread. Let it dry. For roller bearing style trucks, I suggest dark rust. For friction bearing trucks, I suggest grimy black. I also suggest grimy black as a very light coat of weathering to tie in everything on the body of the car. It'll blend everything in nicely. Links to gallery coming up.

Thank you for the kind words and thank you for fixing my post Eilif!