Chassis done

Chassis done
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

Chassis always need special weathering, The mechanical bits either need to be kept clean or be cleaned before you finish. Without the body access is always easier as we don’t want the footplate getting in the way and resulting in clean paint showing do we ? The motor gave me something to hold on to anyway.

I usually just dry-brush some tank grey (Humbrol 67) on anything black and then add in track colour and rust where required. The important thing is to hide any pure black and highlight any detail. If you put rivets on anything, they need highlighting or no one will see them.

Dry brush work also gives a bit of the texture that real dirt has. We don’t want to go mad with this as this is real dirt scaled down 76 times – for all intents and purposes this means smooth. A bit of grain bounces the light around though, which looks authentic.

The last job is to go for it with some weathering powders. I’m not a huge fan of these as they don’t stand up to handling. In the inaccessible areas this isn’t a problem, and there is little better for simulating really think rust as found on the bottom of fireboxes and fronts of cylinders.