Weathering Your Layouts Structures Or Buildings

Most of the plastic buildings look better if you give them a coat of flat over-spray like Testors' Dullcote, which is available in a aerosol spray can. Their appearance is frequently improved even more if they are repainted, but this is not always practical without some sort of airbrush for spraying. Airbrushes are not usually found in the toolboxes of modelers who have been in the hobby for a short time, and many of the aerosol cans put out too heavy a spray to do a fine finishing job. Brushing on plastic works, but is not always easy to do well. Stick to the flat overspray for now; you can always go back and repaint a building later. One thing, though, that can be done at any stage is weathering.

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I like to weather my buildings to age them. This brings them closer to the image that I see in the buildings around me. The world is hard on buildings and vehicles and seldom do you see a bright, shiny, building. Most show signs of the weather working on them, with some dirt and soot on some of the surfaces. Even new aluminum and galvanized metal oxidizes with a relatively flat surface sheen quite quickly. Rust, dirt and discoloration from the elements and environment can be simulated with a variety of paints applied in thinned-out washes. Flat water-based acrylics, like Polly S or the MRC/Tamiya paints, are especially useful. They do not have solvents that might attack plastic or the paint on the model, and the weathering effects can be washed or wiped off be fore the paint dries if it doesn't look good. Look at real buildings to get some ideas on where and how dirt and fading affect structures. Sometimes mud is splashed up and sometimes dirt is washed down. Soot tends to build up on smokestacks and over tunnel portals and enginehouse doors like a dusting. The thing to remember is to work most weathering vertically on walls, since that is how rain washes dirt. Just follow the prototype.

Thin washes are not the only method of aging a building, of course. Dry powder pigments and chalk dust (made by scraping artist's pastels with a knife) may be applied with a brush to models and are especially effective on structures, since they are not likely to be handled very much. Articles on weathering appear in the modeling magazines regularly and may be found by looking under 'Painting, lettering and weathering" in various magazine's annual index like the one in the N.M.R.A. Bulletin. One tip for using washes is in order: to break the surface tension and make the acrylic washes flow better, add a very small drop of liquid dish detergent to the water. And, don't forget to look at your equipment while your weathering supplies are out; locomotives and cars do get dirty!

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