Welcome to another of our "Let's Get Involved" series of how-to modelling guides featuring techniques to take our models to another level. Today it is our lovely 21T HTO/HTV Hopper Wagons that are the subject, as Alex Roughsedge captures the rather battered state the real wagons ended up in. Take it away, Alex!
As with most rolling stock types, HTOs and HTVs had a tendency to get a bit grubby while in service, and as beautiful as the finish is on the new Accurascale models, things are about to get filthy!
I’ll try to keep it as simple as possible – the techniques here make it incredibly easy to achieve very authentic results in just 3 steps, and while one or two of these steps involve airbrushing, you could quite easily skip those and still end up with a very nice-looking model if you don’t have the kit available.
I always like to give any model I’m working on a light coat of matt varnish to start things off. This gives the upcoming techniques something to bite into. I used Mr Colour GX113 here, which is a very high-quality lacquer-based varnish with UV blocking capabilities. In theory, this will ensure colourfastness for years to come, but I suspect it isn’t really necessary. If you have an airbrush, go ahead and blast a decent coat down; otherwise, a good quality varnish from a rattle can will do the job nicely.
Step 1:
So, the first step here is to try to add a bit of depth and artificial shadow (or ‘ambient occlusion’) to the surface. The easiest way is using a pinwash. A pinwash differs from a normal wash in that we are very precisely applying the wash to the details we want to highlight and then wiping away the excess, giving much finer control, and avoiding changing the appearance of the underlying colour too much. This is as opposed to just slapping a coat of thinned paint over the whole thing. I use Tamiya’s Dark Brown Enamel Panel Liner here as I find it to be very convenient - it’s ready to go straight on the model and is the correct consistency.
Alternatively, you could thin down some dark brown enamel with a little white spirit, which would work just as well. Touch the brush to the edges of anything you want to add this effect to – ribbing, handrails, brackets, brake cylinders etc – and the capillary action will draw the wash around the detail.
Next, we want to remove any messy bits that the wash has left behind. Grab a couple of cotton buds dipped in white spirit and carefully clean off the excess. Be a little gentler around printed details such as the TOPS codes and maintenance panels as these can occasionally be rubbed off if you get a bit too vigorous! All being well, we should be left with a fairly clean wagon with just a hint of dirt, but more importantly, much more depth to the surface.
To be honest, you could quite easily leave the model here if you wanted a cleaner example. But we all know we’re not here for clean wagons!
Step 2:
The secret to super-duper easy-peasy rust is… a sponge. Different sponges give slightly different effects, you can use a washing up sponge, makeup sponge, packing sponge, anything you like really, although the slightly harder, more ‘airy’ sponges probably work a bit better for this task, over softer, denser sponges.
Tear a little bit off, clamp it in some tweezers and then dip it into some very dark brown paint. I’ve recently discovered ‘Chip & Nick’ from VMS, which is an acrylic paint specifically formulated for this very task. I don’t know how they do it, but it has a very slight repelling behaviour to it, which results in a really random edge to the rust patch, which I find looks rather good.
You can also reactivate it with water if you want to further refine the chipping. Get some on your sponge, dab most of it away on a paper towel, and then attack your model in a stabbing motion, depositing random specks of paint on the surface. I usually start with the upper edges as I suspect this would get a bit more battered during loading and unloading, and then move on to the lower surfaces.
The more paint you apply to the sponge, the larger the rust patches will be. As you can see, it’s really easy to achieve very convincing patches of flaking paint using this technique. It’s also surprisingly hard to overdo it. Some wagons in service were entirely composed of rust, so you really can go to town here. Also, make sure to change the sponge periodically for different sizes and shapes of rust patches.
Step 3:
This is another airbrush step. This can again be skipped if you don’t have the means to airbrush at home; the previous 2 steps result in a wagon that would still look great in any rake. However, I always like to finish off my weathering with a quick blast of a couple of colours – a very dark black-brown, and a sandy, dusty colour.
Both started off as Mr Colour C522 ‘Ground Colour’ and C119 ‘RLM79’, however, I tend to just top these up and mix other colours in as they start to deplete, so the actual colours aren’t quite the same anymore. Starting with the darker colour, I carefully airbrush this around the wheels, underframe, and lower body, varying the amount depending on the effect I want to achieve.
Next, the dust colour is very lightly sprayed from a distance over the lower areas, which just adds a touch of brake dust to the underframe.
Told you it was easy! These techniques can also be applied to the insides of the wagon; however, I kept it simple here as I’ll be adding coal loads to my rake. Once you’ve got your eye in after the first wagon, the rest are even easier.
Follow these 3 steps again, varying the intensity of each technique as you go through to get different results each time. It’s also worth checking the internet for reference photos of the wagon you’re working on – if you really want to challenge yourself, it’s always fun to have a go at replicating the finish of the real thing!
Adding a DIY Coal load:
Adding coal loads is another great way to boost the realism of your rake. Start by measuring the size of the opening of the wagon and then cut out an insert from foam board.
Measure twice and cut once, unlike me, then you should have an insert that slots nicely into place.
Slap some black acrylic paint onto the surface of the insert to avoid any white patches showing through.
Finally, pour in some real coal, making sure to pile it up. Coal was very rarely a uniform, flat fill, it generally had multiple peaks depending on how the wagon was loaded.
Once happy with the look, trying not to sneeze! dampen the load with Isopropyl Alcohol – this has next to zero surface tension so saturates the coal without disturbing it – and then dribble over a thin mixture of water and PVA glue, with just a drop of washing up liquid and leave to dry for a minimum of 12 hours.
And now for the all-important beauty shots:
