How much is enough

[Lester Perry]

I am just starting at weathering. I mixed some red and brown craft paint to get a rust color. Then dry brushed it onto some boxcar sides. Airbrushed some Polly Scale oily black onto the roofs an a little onto the top of the sides, then dullcoat. I was very pleased.



But I got to thinking. How much rust should there be on a 40 foot box car if I model 1948? How much black would be on the roof? I mean this car has not been the first car on a long freight going through mountains every day since it was built.

I have some other cars that are much dirtier than that one. Also that photo might be a little distorted size wise.

[Tyson Rayles]

Nice looking car Les! I think the main thing is not to weather all the cars the same. Some should be really trashed, some should have have very little and most should be varing degrees of somewhere in between.

[Sumpter250]

Nice looking car Les! I think the main thing is not to weather all the cars the same. Some should be really trashed, some should have have very little and most should be varing degrees of somewhere in between.

and - - How long since the last repaint? - where has the car been? - What has the weather been like? - Was the car on the East coast during "Sandy" ?
"Enough", is when the above story "is told" by the amount of weathering applied.

[BR60103]

I use a rule of thumb on passenger cars that says 7 years between repaints. I think freight cars go longer, probably between "never" and "when the paint falls off so we can't read the number".
1948 is really immediate post war, so cars may be in rougher shape than usual.