Before completing the chalk weathering on the model I painted the metal parts with silver paint.  Over this I dry-brushed a rust color, adding heavy color where it would be likely for rust to form.  Once this had dried I used the chalk to blend in the areas and add even more rust color to the metal.

One of the other final steps was to fill in the small gap on the upper window by using white glue.  This had the effect of filling in the gap, but was able to be hidden by the weathering so that it was not noticeable.  Once all of this had dried I coated the entire model with Dullcote to protect all of the weathering.  On most models I would have done this before installing the windows as it take away the clarity, however in this case I wanted the windows to be slightly opaque so that you  were not able to see inside the building.

Once this building was complete I donated it to the San Leandro Historic Railway society to be used as a generic industrial building on our layout.  This building served as my “try piece” and landed me the job of working with another member to create the buildings for the Selby area of the layout (Selby, CA during the 1950’s contained a lead smelter and not far from there is the C&H sugar plant).  I will provide pictures of this current building and any future buildings in that area as they are built.

After wiping off the excess paint to color the grout in between the bricks I glued the acetate on the window frames and doors.  The reccomendation from most sources is to use some form of white glue to hold it in place, but as I intended to weather the building so that the glass would not really be clear anyways, I used Zap-a-Gap.  This allowed me to install the “glass” much faster than using white glue would have done.  Here is a picture of the building after all the windows and doors had been installed:

The next step was to airbrush a layer of dirt on the building.  Unfortunatly for me I did not thin out the paint far enough so it ended up leaving some rather large splatters.  This ended up working out in the long run as I then used chalk to blend everything together.  Here is a picture showing the roof with one side showing the airbrush and the other showing the chalk blending it in:

I also used chalk to blend on the rest of the building, using a piece of sandpaper to grind the chalk into a fine powder.  I usually use a couple of different colors and use the application brush to blend them.  Here is a picture showing work on the walls of the building:

As you can see in the picture, I also used the chalk on the windows which had the effect of making them very hard to see through (just like most industrial buildings that I see in Oakland, CA).

After doing a little research I found a couple of different techniques, the best of which I found on the NMRA website.  This technique was to paint the walls a brick color, using an airbrush.  Once that had dried I mixed up a batch of watered down white paint.  I brushed this over the wall, covering about one third of the wall.

After allowing it to dry for about one minute I used a rag (an old T shirt) and wiped off the majority of the paint.  This had the affect of removing the white paint off the bricks, leaving the white in the mortar lines.  I was  very pleased with the look, especially considering how quick and easy it was.  Here is the picture of the results:

As you can see it is very bright, but I intend to airbrush and use chalk to complete the look.

As I was on vacation over the Christmas holiday I did not have any time to work on any of my projects so I decided to post some pictures I took at the San Leandro Historic Railway Society while running some of my trains.

This picture shows my F7 A&B units from Proto 2000.  They were the first two models that I installed NCE decoders into, a really easy process as it was just a matter of removing the existing DC chip and plugging in the new decoder.

This picture shows a view of the same train heading across the top of the small helix heading towards Antelope.  Notice the weathered look of the boxcars and gondola in the picture.  This was done by drybrushing two different colors of paint, and then using pastel chalks to complete the affect.

Happy Holidays from RailroadRedux.

I decided that I needed the corrugated metal roof to be rusted and corroded to match the peeling paint of the Fryxell Feed Store.  I used Ferric Chloride to “rust” out the individual panels once I had cut them to the needed size.

-Safety Note-

Make sure to fully read the directions on the bottle when using chemical etchants.  Use safety equipment as directed and make sure to use in a well ventilated area, preferably outside.  Make sure to follow local regulations on disposal of used etchant.

I dipped the pieces into the solution and left them there until they “boiled” violently.  I then swished the pieces in water to stop the reaction and set them to dry after wiping the gunk off of them.  Once dry I attached the pieces to the cardstock sub-roof using a CA type glue, although in the future I think I will use tacky glue.

Once I attached the roof panels I used a mixture of several different colors of pastel chalks to provide the rusted color I wanted.  I then sealed the roof using Dulcote.