Weathering a Athearn 53' Trailer with Bragdon Powders

[Trucklover]

Hi Guys, just in case some of you may be wondering how i am weathering my trucks in this thread here is a quick tutorial on how im doing them

Materials

• 1. A set of Weathering Powders, i use Bragdon Weathering Powders. I have a set that has black, light, medium and dark rust
  2. Cheap Gray Primer Spray Paint
  3. Large Round STIFF Brush
  4. 1/4 soft bristle brush (thats just the size i use, yours can be bigger or smaller.....)
  5. Cheap Brush that you can cut the bristles off so its a short and stiff brush, see the picture
  6. 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol (not pictures, for cleaning whatever your weathering before you start to remove grease and fingerprints)
  7. A can of Dullcoat or bottle of Flat Finish sprayed from an airbrush

Cleaning Your Models

It is very important that you take a paper towel and rub your model clean of any fingerprints or grease that may be on the model due to handling. Take the paper towel and put a little of the 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol on it and just wipe the model down with it.



Spraying Your Model

Take your can of cheap Primer Gray Spray Paint and spray your model with a light mist. I use a can from Wal-Mart just because the stuff is $.99 a can and its decent enough to get the job done in most of my projects lol.

I set my trailer (or whatever im weathering) on the fence with a piece of newspaper under it out on the side of my house (this way it is basically eye level with me) and spray from the bottom of the model pointing upwards. This concentrates most of the spray on the bottom, and this is where the heaviest amount of dirt, rust, grime and grit will be found on just about anything that travels down the road or rails.... I spray all 4 sides of the model this way, then turn it on its side and spray the roof and underside with a light coat of mist as well

Be careful not to overdue it, if you overdue it, your screwed... :oops: all you want is a nice light coat of mist. If you want to weather the model more, then a little thicker mist coat is okay....

The purpose for the mist is to help the powders stick to the model. Bragdon Powders have a friction activated bonding agent in them, so the harder you rub them, the more they will stick.

Here is what the trailer (in this case an Athearn 53' Wabash Duraplate trailer for Swift Transportation) looked like before and after a mist of the primer:







Applying the Weathering Powders

I always apply the powders over a piece of paper or the top/bottom of a Athearn Blue Box, this way you can save and pour back the excess that comes off. I also take a little of each of the colors onthe tip of my brush and dab it off onto my piece of paper so i dont have to reach into the container for more each time. Often times when you reach into the container you get way to much powder on the tip of the brush....

Begin with one side of the model and brush from the top down. Now the advantage of the Bragdon Powders is that they stick right when they are applied, and the harder you rub them, the more they stick. If you apply to much, you can take a wet corner of a paper towel and rub in a downward motion to remove the excess, but again this wont work with normal chalks, they will just wipe right off....

I applied the powders pretty heavy to the trailer as you can see below, in this case, i only used Black Powder to weather this trailer:





Activating the Weathering Powders

After you have applied the powders, weather it be heavily or light, take your large round stiff brush and rub the model with some pressure, but being careful not to rub with to much pressure that you break off detail parts..... By doing this, you are activating the friction agent in the powders, therefore making the powders stick to the model better.



Wiping the Excess Weathering Powders Off the Model

After you finish applying the powders to all four sides, take a small piece of paper towel and soak it then get most of the water out of it. You just want the paper towel to be damp, not dripping with water. Wipe the trailer or whatever your working on in a downward motion starting from the top and wiping down to the bottom. This will remove alot of the powders, but your model will also start to look better and will not look so dark (like in my last pic above). It might take a little elbow grease to get some of the dark spots out if you dont like them, but they will eventually come out. This is what my trailer looked like after wiping the excess off:






Highlighting the details

After you have wiped off the excess powders, take your brushes and apply some of the powders to the various small details on the models (wheels, couplers, landing gears, underframe and whatever else....) use the small cut stiff brush for tight areas and your other brush for the larger details like the landing gear and underframe. Here is my trailer after i applied excess powders to the underframe, trailer boogie/wheels, landing gear, mud flaps, and rear bumper/door:













Sealing your Models

If you would like to seal your models because you will be handling them alot, you can seal them with Dullcoat or Floquil Flat Finish using an airbrush (or whatever you prefer). I prefer not to use Dullcoat because it takes away from the details in the weathering and hides a considerable amount of chalks and highlights. If you use the Bragdon Powders, it is not necessary to seal them, but if you are going to handle the model alot, i would suggest sealing them....


Continue to highlight the details until you are happy with the outcome, and your done. An easy lesson on weathering with the Bragdon Weathering Powders

[Sarge]

Great tutorial Josh!! That is almost the same method I use

[Trucklover]

Great tutorial Josh!! That is almost the same method I use

Thanks Jim, this seems to work fairly well, and the Bragdon Powders are really easy to work with

[LynnB]

Excellent job on the weathering, the wheel rims stand out great as seeing alot of miles.

[OBJack]

That looks cool Josh. Very believable.
Thanks for the info, weathering is something I have been to timid to try as yet, and need to read a lot of posts like yours so the methods are rammed home into this thick scull of mine.I will have a go one day .....soon...promise...


Jack

[tetters]

Nice "quick and dirty" tutorial Josh.

[Trucklover]

Lynn, Jack, and Shane, thanks for the comments

Jack i used to be like this too lol. Then i saw Deano's (UP SD40-2) weathering tutorial on the other site about 2 years ago. He did a tutorial using the gray primer and india ink washes. its a great tutorial, maybe Deano or one of the mods could bring it over here to the new place?

I know Deano has been very busy with work, we havnt seen him in a few months lets hope hes doing okay and hasnt gotten over loaded with work, hope he comes back soon, im sure we all miss him

Anyways, this is what i started with, the gray primer done just like i did above and then with a wash of india ink diluted with the 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol, it also is a pretty goof proof method to weathering

[Steve]

Great tutorial Josh!
The finished product looks wonderfully realistic..........well done!!