Very good video showing a brick painting technique using weathering powders and alcohol.

Also notice the incredible brick, a lasercut wood building, from Monster Modelworks

Lately I have been working on several small kits from a couple different manufacturers.

The first kit is Sweaty Betty’s from Bar Mills Scale Model Works.  This was a birthday present from my wife.

This kit has been really easy to build, the directions are supurb as I have found is standard for Bar Mills.  The way the front windows are put together is very cool and the end results make it look like it was very hard.   Here is the current progress:

Another model, actually two is from Rio Grande Models, it is the Holt Steam Crawler and the Holt trailer.

And the final model for this post: a water tank for donkey engines from Rio Grande Models.

Of minor interest all of these pictures were taken with an iPad…not quite as good a quality as my regular camera but actually turned out better than I expected.

One of my recent kits was the Erie Power Shovel from Rio Grande Models Ltd.

I weathered it by dry-brushing with a couple of colors, starting with brown and ending with rust.  I then used my India ink and alcohol wash to color the wood and darken the rest of the model.

After watching the almost completed model stare at me for quite a while I finally dedided to complete the model.  For this model I used commercial weathering poweders in various shades from red to orange, yellow and black.  These are slightly different than using chalk as the harder you scrub them the more vividly they apear on the model.  The major reason for them being so much stronger than chalk is that they are made from ground artists pigment.

I went heavy on the weathering because I figured that equipment like this  would see a lot of use.

This was another great model from Rio Grande Models Ltd.  The Linn Truck was in use  until the 60′s mostly due to its high traction ability.  It was common to convert them into logging trucks.

I used weathering powders heavily on this truck considering the front wheel was often converted to a more modern style for better traction.  I will most likely use this as a load for a flat car.