Category: Uncategorized

Rust

By Rob Manley

“Rust Never Sleeps” It’s better to burn out than it is to rust….
The baby boomer covered hopper edition.
I thought it would be appropriate to borrow an album title from Neil Young. He is a model railroader and a fine musician. Music means a lot to me and I have very intense feelings about it. My favorite radio station is Chicago’s WXRT which plays progressive Rock and has been since the early ‘70s. During a recent “Panic Modeling” attack the week before the “All American Model Railroad Show” in Lagrange Illinois, I had the stereo tuned to 93.1 FM. It was also more convenient than loading up a bunch of CDs. Speaking of convenience, I was in fact weathering with my PanPastel® on the dining room table.

DINING_Table

Hard at work on the dining room table, scrubbing with 90% Isopropyl alcohol and paper towel.

These cars were previously painted, decaled and weathered by another modeler. I used 90% Ispopropyl alcohol, small squares of paper towel and Q-Tips® to scrub the previous wet brush style weathering off. This stripped off some of the Dullcoat and gave a mottled and faded look to the paint. We’re going to re-coat the model with a Model Masters flat finish to prepare for the PanPastel®. (For more about using flat finishes read this post: Preparing to Weather

Some of the paint was enhanced with more PanPastel® Paynes Grey Tint 840.8 (a close enough match). This filled in areas that were damaged during the cleaning. It’s also a method to introduce fading paint to your weathering repertorie. We’ll cover this in more detail in a later blog.

BEFORE_TABR

Before cleaning.

Clean_Tabr

Cleaning with Alcohol and a cotton swab. I feel like the art restoration people. There is some decal blush visible because the decals were applied directly to flat paint. They should always be applied to a glossy finish and flatted later.

AFTR_TABR

After cleaning with the color addition and correction of Paynes Grey Tint 840.8
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Our topic of discussion today is rust. It’s a really broad subject and I am going to cover as much as possible in this space.

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Preparing to Weather – Flat Finishes

By Rob Manley

I had a great time at the Amherst Model Train Show back in January this year. I gave a PanPastel® weathering clinic to a full house on Friday and did demos at the PanPastel table for the rest of the weekend. It’s always great to meet the modelers that use PanPastel and those who are interested in trying. The word is definitely out and there are some great examples of really high-end modeling by using PanPastel. What I have to remember is that the product has as much appeal for the novice as for the more experienced user too.

I’ve been using PanPastel since 2009 and sometimes I forget about those starting out in the hobby. So after some soul searching (I should have looked in the back of my sock drawer) we are going back to the beginning…

So why do we modelers weather our stuff? Well in a word, realism. It is also another way to put our personal mark on our models in a hobby that is becoming more “ready to run”. Models have become straight from the box, contest winners, with all the prototype details correctly installed and painted. Some of the time anyway. Weathering is also a great way to hide flaws too.

I saw some great layouts at the show but on some of them I did notice was that the motive power (and most of the train) looked like it rolled from the paint booth. Yep, no weathering. Right from the box and on the rails. So why, does this happen? Well I’m glad I asked that question. Modelers I met at the show who don’t weather gave me some of the answers.

  1. “I can’t weather.”
  2. “I don’t have an airbrush.”
  3. “I’m afraid of wrecking my expensive model.”

All, extremely, valid, points. Well, here are my answers:

To #3 – You can not wreck it with PanPastel because it can be removed/corrected easily.

To #2 – You don’t need an airbrush.

And to #1, that’s OK ‘cause I’ll teach you how I weather.

PanPastel is a great product with an amazing limitless number of uses. It’s easy too. There is really no down side to it as it lasts a really long time. Read more

Tints, Shades & Extra Darks Explained

Pans - Tints to Extra Dark BURNT SIENNA

The PanPastel Color range includes tints, shades, extra darks and pure colors.

Sometimes we are asked what is the difference between our tints, shades and extra darks. So here is a brief explanation:

PURE COLORS
PanPastel pure colors refer to colors with pure pigment which have not been mixed with black or white.
740 =Color No. 740.5 = Pure Color

TINTS
Tints are the pure colors mixed with white.
220.8 =Tint (Pure Color + White)

SHADES
Shades are the pure color mixed with black.
220.3 = Shade (Pure Color + Black)

EXTRA DARK
Extra darks are created by mixing more black (more than the shade) to the pure color, to create intensely rich and dark colors
220.1= Extra Dark (Pure Color + More Black)

The pre-mixed tints/shades offer modelers ready to use, consistently mixed, tints, shades, and extra darks. However as all the colors can be mixed it is also very easy to blend custom colors also.

The reference numbers we use for each color, as well as the color name indicates which type of color it is. Summary of color references:

740 =Color Reference No.
740.5 = Pure Color (Masstone)
740.7/.8 =Tint (Pure Color + White)*
740.3 = Shade (Pure Color + Black)
740.1/.2= Extra Dark (Pure Color + More Black)**

Note: All greys except 840.1 are mixed with white.
*Neutral Grey 820.8 is lighter than 820.7 (i.e. more white).
**Neutral Grey 820.1 is darker than 820.2 (i.e. more black).
For information on our weathering colors visit ModelingColors.com
Contact your local hobby store to order these new items.

New Product – Pearl Black Mediums

Pearl Mediums Pan Group No Logo

NEW! PanPastel Pearl Medium – Black  Use these on their own or mix and blend them with the original PanPastel Colors to create shimmering darks and shades. Available in fine and coarse.

FINE – Contains smaller particles to create a soft and subtle sheen.
COARSE – Contains larger particles to create a more shimmering sparkle.

The pearl mediums will add a sheen / shimmer which changes depending on the angle it is viewed from, this also creates dimension.

Try them to add realistic sparkle and sheen to coal loads, as well as coke and iron ore, in hoppers and tenders.

Black & White Marks Coarse & Fine with captions sml

Contact your local hobby store to order these new items.
For more info write to us at: [email protected]