Weathering Your Rail Cars with Acrylic Paints

I spent today working on my N scale Conrail box car. I decided I was going to weather it up and tag it with some graffiti. I will be walking you through how I completed weathering the sides and adding graffiti later on. In this post I want to talk to you about the technique I used to create an amazing rusty box car roof.

First off, let me show you how the roof came out.

To start off, I cleaned the model off with some 70% rubbing alcohol and a makeup wedge. 2 passes with the wedge over each side helps make sure I removed any dust or oil left over from my fingerprints. There was some excess alcohol left over, using the dry end of the wedge I wiped it up. If you decide to skip wiping with alcohol, it will clearly show your finger prints and the paint will not adhere well to the model. To complete getting the box car ready for paint, I went outside and gave a quick pass of Testors' dullcote on every side.

On the roof I started looking at multiple pictures on the internet and Pinterest to get an idea of how rust accumulates on top of a box car. I decided to use two cars I found on Pinterest for a reference.

My first attempt at painting was far from looking like any of the pictures. I tried doing a streaking method with paint thinner; bad idea. Looking more at the reference photos, I saw a model that looked like someone dabbed the paint on the roof! So, I applied some rust colored Testors' acrylic paint to an 1/8" brush (use a brush you're okay with beating up), utilized a dry brushing technique, and dabbed the brush across the width of the car. Dry brushing is a great technique to not overwhelm your model with paint. Take a spare piece of paper, napkin, or towel to stroke or dab your brush on. When minimal amounts of paint come off the brush you are ready to go! I tried to be random with where I would dabbed the brush to bring a more realistic look. Adding extra dabs of paint in some areas for heavy rust and less in others so that some silver from the car would show through.

I wanted the darker, older rust to be more in the center line of the roof. To get the darker color, using a small dropper, I mixed the rust color with a few drops of black acrylic paint. Eyeballing this step is the best way to get the right color for you. Using the same brush as before (I didn't bother cleaning it), I began dabbing the the darker color on top of the previous layer. I was a little heavier on the paint closer to the center and became more sparing as I got away from it. The look of it is amazing and I could not be happier!

Thank you for reading, guys! I hope this helps you weather your rolling stock, and if you have any questions please comment below! Don't forget to keep up with future posts by SUBSCRIBING down below. Just enter your email and you become part of the T.T.MR. Crew! Finally, click the links below to follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!