Railworks America

I'm working on a "lightly" weathered CSX YN2 C40-8. Most (if not all) of CSX's conventional Dash 8s that are still left in YN2 paint have all but faded into a near baby blue and bleached yellow appearance. The program I'm using has a tool that can brighten and darken colors, the only downside being it ends up killing texture quality. So if any of our experts out there have done weathering/fading, what would you recommend doing? Should I spray a white color over the yellow and a bright blue over all of the blue, or should I do something completely different? Any and all ideas are welcome .

JM1261 wrote:I'm working on a "lightly" weathered CSX YN2 C40-8. Most (if not all) of CSX's conventional Dash 8s that are still left in YN2 paint have all but faded into a near baby blue and bleached yellow appearance. The program I'm using has a tool that can brighten and darken colors, the only downside being it ends up killing texture quality. So if any of our experts out there have done weathering/fading, what would you recommend doing? Should I spray a white color over the yellow and a bright blue over all of the blue, or should I do something completely different? Any and all ideas are welcome .

Depends if you used the logo texture. If you painted the logos on, it would be the same process, just doing it twice for the doors and then the hood.

But just make the logos bright blue is one idea. Let's see what I can do, I'll be tinkering with the C40-8W, because some of them are like what you describe.

Omg look at the incredible detail DTG put into this.

Now time to use your imagination. Look at the blue on the logo, now imagine that blue on the rest of the engine, and you will get the idea.

Here's what I have.



The blue was brighter in Paintshop.

Hmm. I wonder where you got the idea to do this.

Can you make layers for the Tc file when you convert it to dds? The best way to fade that blue is create a gray layer under the blue layer, then give the blue layer 60% opacity. Then for lighter streaks, find a desirable brush, apply it to the eraser, give it an opacity between 5 and 30, and run it over the blue until the desired amount of fade is achieved.

The Rust is two more layers under the gray, and you use the eraser to burn through the gray layer, then the light rust layer, until the dark grainy rust appears.

The photo below was modeled after a unit in the deadline at Waycross.

JerryC wrote:Hmm. I wonder where you got the idea to do this.

Can you make layers for the Tc file when you convert it to dds? The best way to fade that blue is create a gray layer under the blue layer, then give the blue layer 60% opacity. Then for lighter streaks, find a desirable brush, apply it to the eraser, give it an opacity between 5 and 30, and run it over the blue until the desired amount of fade is achieved.

The Rust is two more layers under the gray, and you use the eraser to burn through the gray layer, then the light rust layer, until the dark grainy rust appears.

The photo below was modeled after a unit in the deadline at Waycross.

Well to be honest, that big GE you posted a screenshot of was my inspiration for one of the faded engines!

Layers are what's been keeping my sanity when doing weathering so yes, I can make them. If only I had known your technique sooner! Looks like I'll be busy tomorrow.

Thank you very much, and great job on that C30-7 .

My "technique" is still experimental. Before that the extent of my weathering was to Difference cloud a Brown/Black layer, give it noise, and reduce the opacity. It's real trial and error fading with a brush.

Another tip - if you goof up the CSX logo, or simply want or need to replace it as a layer, Lubalin Graph Bold font makes an excellent CSX logo typeface. It will need a little work on the vertical shafts, but that can easily be done in PS.

Hmm. Maybe I'll take a deeper look into this Paint Shop, looks like it can do me some good. Link please.

JerryC wrote:My "technique" is still experimental. Before that the extent of my weathering was to Difference cloud a Brown/Black layer, give it noise, and reduce the opacity. It's real trial and error fading with a brush.

Another tip - if you goof up the CSX logo, or simply want or need to replace it as a layer, Lubalin Graph Bold font makes an excellent CSX logo typeface. It will need a little work on the vertical shafts, but that can easily be done in PS.

Thanks again for all of these tips! I really appreciate.

ZekTheKid wrote:Hmm. Maybe I'll take a deeper look into this Paint Shop, looks like it can do me some good. Link please.

I'd say go with the most recent version. It looks like it has so many more features and options than the version I'm using (PSP 7). Be prepared to pay some big $$$ though

http://m.mychoicesoftware.com/item/3630 ... medium=cpc

Have you taken a look at GIMP? It's free.

buzz456 wrote:Have you taken a look at GIMP? It's free.

Gimp? I have it, I'm still experimenting with it because the way Justin Riese repaints, he uses paint.net, which has a re-color feature. That's how I've been repainting for the last year or so, but it has become unreliable because of the weird effects it makes now. I'll post a picture later when I get home.

ZekTheKid wrote:

buzz456 wrote:Have you taken a look at GIMP? It's free.

Gimp? I have it, I'm still experimenting with it because the way Justin Riese repaints, he uses paint.net, which has a re-color feature. That's how I've been repainting for the last year or so, but it has become unreliable because of the weird effects it makes now. I'll post a picture later when I get home.

I'm sure it's something to do with operator error. Computers rarely do weird things without human input of some sort.

Sorta like the Dash 8 in this video (my vid)?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVRnBAm3B5I

Buzz, this is what I mean:

Everything in red is the weird stuff. I tried to re-color the BNSF clean dash 9, this is what happened.