Newqida Tank Painting and Weathering

[Paradise]

I have been refinishing a string of Newqida Tank cars and trying out some weathering techniques.
This is experimental work in progress. The tank supports/info boards have not been refinished yet and the chassis, ladders and platform have not been weathered, only the tanks and the lower part around the axle boxes which is only very slight and not so noticeable in the pictures.
I figure a good paint over on these budget cars will help make them last longer, being a cheaper plastic that may be more vulnerable to the effects of UV.
I will add some more images as I progress.

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[Clive Tucker]

Looks great! What paint have you used for this please?

 

[Paradise]

Clive, I discovered many moons ago that automotive vinyl paint gives excellent results on surfaces. It doesn't have a thick build up and bonds extremely well as if becoming part of the plastic. Dry to touch in seconds. Very easy to work with doing a few thin coats from different angles leaving some time in between.
I think it is xylene based and has that stinky nail polish smell so do in a well ventilated area. More expensive than the budget spray cans around but well worth it. The finish as you see has a very dull sheen to it. I think it looks the part of painted metal for models. Would work well for plastic boilers. It only comes in small range of colours though.

https://duplicolor.com/product/vinyl-and-fabric-coating

 

[65 1057]

Could you please tell us how you realized the slightly "rotten/rusty surface" on top of the tank? Looks pretty realistic!
And - where did you buy these paints?

 

[dunnyrail]

Could you please tell us how you realized the slightly "rotten/rusty surface" on top of the tank? Looks pretty realistic!
And - where did you buy these paints?

Tamiya Matt Paints are great for dry brush weathering, I extensively use the following
All XF ref's
9 hull red
52 flat earth
24 dark grey
1 flat black
2 flat white
Not forgetting any Gloss Black for spilled fuel.
Though these are small pots for just weathering they do go a long way.

For larger Spray Area's your local Automotive Spares Shops should be able to supply cans of Matt Black, Grey, Brown and White all of which work well. Other colours you will probably just have to take a good guess from the colour charts, this is how I selected the colours for my East German Red and Creme.

My weathered Tank Train all Newquid Wagons except for the Bogie one which is Bachman. Note the mods to make them look more European.To dry brush weather, a pretty hard largish 1-2 CM brush is loaded with a little of the paint just at the end, this is wiped on a tissue then the brush just dragged or flicked along the area you wish to weather. Worth while to practice on an old tin or something to get the feel of the effect. The brush can be reloaded from the tissue if it has not fully dried. The effect can be built up. Another goodvplace to practice is the effects of Rust and Track Gunge on chassis if Wagons. Matt white and grey done very lightly will help to enhance detail.

 

[Henri]

Very nice!!! I hope to master this art myself sometime.

 

[Henri]

The only tank wagon I have is a first gen LGB and the railing and stairs are made of a somewhat soft and slippery kinda plastic. How do you manage to have paint stick?

 

[65 1057]

Very realistic! Thank you for the useful hints!!

 

[dunnyrail]

The only tank wagon I have is a first gen LGB and the railing and stairs are made of a somewhat soft and slippery kinda plastic. How do you manage to have paint stick?

You probably need to do an undercoat with a Matt Grey Acrylic Automotive Spray, I have sprayed old LGB Stock with perfect reaults using this method.

 

[Paradise]

Could you please tell us how you realized the slightly "rotten/rusty surface" on top of the tank? Looks pretty realistic!
And - where did you buy these paints?

I've used the 'Salt Technique' for weathering. No dry brushing done at all.
For the black coat I used automotive vinyl upholstery paint sprayed directly over the plastic. It bonds to plastic extremely well and has very little build up. Dry to touch in seconds. It cost more than regular paint but you can do several cars with one can. The rust colour is Tamiya acrylic Hull Red.

Below is the basic sequence for the 'Salt Technique' to produce rust and weathered paint effects. (I did a different sequence of painting with the black tank for various reasons)
A silver tank is done for demonstration purposes here as it will show up better in the images.

First rub down the lettering with wet and dry a little so the edges don't show. It's also a good idea to fill and sand the moulding bung at the end of the tank.

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Once primed, spray the base rust coat (The image is a different colour to Hull Red)

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Spray some water with a drop or two of detergent over the tank. Wipe over to remove excess water. You don't want it saturated, only damp enough so the salt just sticks and does not dissolve too much.
Sprinkle salt where you want the rust to show. I put an excessive amount on here and made patchy by rubbing some off with my finger on the right and re-wet a bit on the left and re-salted for demonstration purposes. When dry, careful to not disturb the salt. It will easily fall off if touched.

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When the salted tank is completely dry spray the top coat all over

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After the paint has dried properly, rinse the salt away and rub down gently with a scotch-bright pad or wet n' dry.
Because I had salt all down the sides I ended up with rust spots down there too which I didn't really want so I airbrushed some more silver down the bottom to cover them up.

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I hope that gives you the basic idea on how to go about it. There are other possibilities too. Just experiment.

 

[dunnyrail]

I've used the 'Salt Technique' for weathering. No dry brushing done at all.
For the black coat I used automotive vinyl upholstery paint sprayed directly over the plastic. It bonds to plastic extremely well and has very little build up. Dry to touch in seconds. It cost more than regular paint but you can do several cars with one can. The rust colour is Tamiya acrylic Hull Red.

Below is the basic sequence for the 'Salt Technique' to produce rust and weathered paint effects. (I did a different sequence of painting with the black tank for various reasons)
A silver tank is done for demonstration purposes here as it will show up better in the images.

First rub down the lettering with wet and dry a little so the edges don't show. It's also a good idea to fill and sand the moulding bung at the end of the tank.

View media item 3185
Once primed, spray the base rust coat (The image is a different colour to Hull Red)

View media item 3181
Spray some water with a drop or two of detergent over the tank. Wipe over to remove excess water. You don't want it saturated, only damp enough so the salt just sticks and does not dissolve too much.
Sprinkle salt where you want the rust to show. I put an excessive amount on here and made patchy by rubbing some off with my finger on the right and re-wet a bit on the left and re-salted for demonstration purposes. When dry, careful to not disturb the salt. It will easily fall off if touched.

View media item 3182
When the salted tank is completely dry spray the top coat all over

View media item 3183
After the paint has dried properly, rinse the salt away and rub down gently with a scotch-bright pad or wet n' dry.
Because I had salt all down the sides I ended up with rust spots down there too which I didn't really want so I airbrushed some more silver down the bottom to cover them up.

View media item 3184
I hope that gives you the basic idea on how to go about it. There are other possibilities too. Just experiment.

Very nice the salt technique works very well with varying layers of paint as you describe.

Another option that works outsideas well as in is what I now call the “Casey Technique” cos I got it from him. You spread Iron Filings on a whatever (it works on plastic and alluminium) give an overnight wait after spraying Vinegar volah instant rust.

So as you all can see, lots of options for our armoury of creating dereliction!

 

[Henri]

Wow, just awesome!! Thanks for the manual.

 

[Paradise]

The only tank wagon I have is a first gen LGB and the railing and stairs are made of a somewhat soft and slippery kinda plastic. How do you manage to have paint stick?

I was concerned about the softer shinny plastic on the Newqida ladders too. The vinyl Fabric paint I used is nasty solvent based so sticks extremely well to plastic. It worked fine directly on the ladder plastic. A wet coat is probably the go so it keys in well. It won't rub or peel off. Other solvent based paints (thinners) probably work good too as Dunnyrail said.

 

[Clive Tucker]

I don't have any Newqida stuff, and to be honest I only have 3 tankers (all LGB). I have used various methods down the years, this second hand Shell tanker has been roundly used and abused in my experiments around weathering: air brushing, washes, dry brushing, dry spongeing, and good old iron powder sprayed with vinegar to give it a proper send-off!

Before:

After:

 

[Paradise]

Nice! It has certainly seen some work and has plenty of 'charm'.
One thing I can't decide on is how derelict I should make my string of 12 tankers or even what colour they should be. That's why I'm treading slowly with just a couple of car tanks trying different things out at the moment. I'm yet to tackle the ladders and chassis. I think once I know how much the tanks will be weathered the rest will fall into place.
Good to have just one car to fiddle with the various techniques and go all the way.