Railworks America

Can anyone tell me a good way to weather?

I used four layers of paint, Black-Grey-Red-Ochre, one on each layer. I sprayed each layer with the spray gun sort of brush and messed with opacity and fill on each layer. Some were 10%-70% respectively others were 20%-26% or 15%-30% respectively. I also have some photos of real smoke that I use, again I pull and twist that and mess with opacity and fill to get an effect. The layer order also affects the look.

My FURX 3011 skin has been weathered. It is probably ok and is my second or third attempt at weathering. It is not easy, different routes have different effects on the same weathering due to their lighting effects. It all becomes an artistic impression and some artists are just very good at it.

As Marleyman said, it's mainly about using layers (I use Photoshop) and applying different shades of "dirt" colours with varying amounts of opacity and flow (best to use low percentages) in the Brush Tool. It takes practice to imitate what you see in photos. You need to spend time looking carefully at those photos and understanding what it is that makes them look weathered, study the colouring, where the dirt, soot, etc. builds up, the patterns it makes (streaks? splodges?). There's no shortcut and you do need to have a certain amount of artistic talent to get it right.

By the way, dirt isn't always dark. Sometimes you need to apply a variety of shades of white to get the effect.

Thanks all of you.

I really need to update that page - it's old as the hills, and I've learned much over the years!

Drink a lot.