Weathering and airbrushes - a class 37, 47 and 03

One of my first attempts at weathering, a dutch liveried class 37.

Santa has been very kind to me this year and I got a book I asked for that will help me with weathering and air brushing. I have had my air brush for a year now and it has been a fun learning curve. Maybe I should have read more to start with....and I have made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I am enjoying the journey. However, the quality of the finish is increasing with greater experience...but some of the earlier attempts I am now less pleased with. I also got a new Bachmann weathered class 25 for xmas, and the comparison of this with some of my earlier attempts at weathering, I thought, would be interesting. This blog has always been about my attempts at modelling, which is something I enjoy, but do not take too seriously.


The body sides on the class 47 are much better, but the weathering on the solebars needs further attention

The class 37 was the first or second attempt at weathering a locomotive. At the time I was over the moon with the finish. Some time and distance gave a little bit of objectivity to viewing the end result and it was quickly taken back into the paintshop. The end results is ok. I like it because it is a first attempt. But the spray is too blotchy over the body - a product of a blocked air brush, something I did not notice at the time, due to inexperience.



The class 47 I originally painted by hand. I washed it off and reweathered the factory finished livery using the airbrush. The roof and the body sides I am pretty happy with. The solebars look awful and now that I notice them, they have to get a full strip and repaint next year. The class 03 I was and am happy with the end product. It is still not perfect, but it is better again than the last. More time was taken, more coats and a better ability to mix paints.


The weathering of the 03 is a much later project and I think the result i much better

Which brings me to the Bachmann class 25. The factory weathered finish is multi-tonal and is better than previous offerings. However, I still think it is a pretty unrealistic finish. I wanted to buy it to compare with the finishes I am producing, and also to use it as a basis of a more detailed weathering job. Do not get me wrong, I think it is great that Bachmann are trying to produce more detailed weathered finishes. But given the comparison, I am going to stick with producing my own finishes. Nothing beats individuality and I am going down the path of buying cheaper locomotives (bargains!!) with the aim of detailing and weathering them. It seems less worrying to have a bash at a bargain, rather than a more expensive model!!


A Bachmann class 25 with a weathered factory finish......

I have a lot of good projects on the go at the moment, not least a 33/2 about to enter the paintshop, and a class 45. I intend to mess both of these up quite heavily. I hope to have some further results to show on this blog soon.