Thorsten StrĂśver’s article in the April 2017 issue of German magazine Eisenbahn Kurier features PanPastel for weathering. The 6 page article shows many of the techniques that Thorsten uses with PanPastel. Even if you don’t speak German, the images speak for themselves and showcase the realistic weathering effects that Thorsten was able to successfully achieve.
Note: for readers of US magazine “Model Railroader” – Thorsten is featured in the Trackside Gallery in the August 2017 issue.
Here are some simple techniques for using the new PanPastel Pearl Medium White (Fine) 011:
Apply PanPastel Neutral Grey 820.5Â with Sofft Mini Applicator to represent weathered wood running board and hatches.
PanPastel Neutral Grey 820.5 on wood running boards and platforms. Orange sides of reefer faded with Yellow Ochre Shade 270.3.
Simulate ice and brine damage on upper corner and drain above truck and wheels using Pearl Medium White Fine 011.
Other uses for White Pearl Fine and Coarse would be white caps on marine dioramas, waterfronts and rivers. I have a small diorama my wife, Bev, built for her covered bridge model. I plan on adding âwaterâ to the creek and using the Pearl White Fine and Coarse 012 to create waves or foam on the top of the water. Iâll cover this in detail when I show you, in a future post, how to use PanPastelÂŽ for scenery construction.
~ Rob Manley
I really havenât covered structures in my blogs. They are, in my opinion, one of the most important elements in model railroading. They are the setting for the trains we detail and weather. One of my favorite structures in the railroad realm is the country grain elevator. I have a nice collection of 35mm slides that I took starting in the seventies. I am sure many of these âCountry Skyscrapersâ are now gone. One of the best ways we can recapture those memories is by building a model of them. The model I chose for this portion is the WalthersÂŽ corrugated elevator. I primed it with a Light Grey acrylic. Originally meant to be weathered with washes, I procrastinated long enough to discover PanPastelÂŽ and use them instead. I am so glad that happened.
Weathered with Sofft Sponge Bar and random colors from the PanPastel Rust & Earth set.
Step 1. I started by using my SofftÂŽ Sponge Bar by scrubbing on an overall covering of Burnt Sienna 740.5 and Burnt Sienna Shade 740.3. You have to really push the color into the corrugated grooves. The overall effect is to have the rust in the recesses and the high spots to be slightly polished by the wind. I then used random swipes of Burnt Sienna Tint 740.8, Raw Umber Tint 780.8, Red Iron Oxide Extra Dark 380.1, to name a few. Honestly, I work so fast I barely remember what colors I used. If an area looks too heavily colored I will keep brushing it down with one of my SofftÂŽ Sponge Bars. If I want to tone it down further, I use the PanPastel Colorless Blender 010 as seen on the roof panel. The Colorless Blender will soon become one of your most used “Un-Colors”. It can also be used as a primer for lighter colors.
Step 2. Next any stray excess color was blown off and a paper towel was used to lightly wipe the excess on the raised corrugations. This allowed the Pewter 921.5 and Silver 920.5 to accent the high spots as in real life. I then used the flat spongy side of the block to add the final overlay of Silver. This side took less than 5 minutes. Structures are not handled like rolling stock so a flat finish (spray) is rarely needed.
Step 3. Add silver and Pewter to tops of corrugations.
Well, as always, itâs been fun sharing more techniques with you. I have more projects in mind to post about in the near future. ~Â Rob Manley
“All That Glitters”
Iâve had these PanPastelÂŽ Metallic Colors for a while and I always thought they looked pretty cool. Lots of potential. A little hard to write about. I guess it is because they are more subtle than the other colors we use in weathering our models. Now, I didnât make an immediate reference to my obsession with freight car modeling. By models I mean the plastic kits that most of us started with like Revell planes, Monogram cars and Sci-fi kits.
There are 6 PanPastel Metallic Colors:
910.5 Light Gold
911.5 Rich Gold
920.5 Silver
921.5 Pewter
930.5 Bronze
931.5 Copper
The colors have some interesting properties; they can add highlights to a model that add that âhumanâ touch. A realistic sign that miniature folks left their mark on the model. Metal can show signs of rust, mud and dirt; it can also show signs of wear. Paint fails down to the metal when rubbed or gouged. This can be easily simulated with the swipe of a Sofft ToolÂŽ.
Letâs talk about the Silver and Pewter first. In a previous post I described the weathering of exposed galvanized sheet metal on boxcar roofs. The technique can also be used for structure roofs, corrugated sides like grain elevators, truck or trailer cargo areas.
We are going to cover a much talked about subject, fading. This is the effect of the sun on real prototype paint which causes the color to change to a lighter shade or in some cases âpink outâ.
Soot and dirt will make some colors go much darker, in the case of the Burlingtonâs 1958 chinese red boxcars that look almost boxcar brown when viewed in the late 70âs. This I know because itâs the railroad I model and I have a color chip painted with the exact formula of Dupont ÂŽpaint. The cars I saw were in a scrap line at Chicagoâs Metron Steel almost 30 years ago with my friend Dave Sarther and his son Davie. I couldnât believe the overall change in its hue when we hiked up to their boxcar purgatory. I picked a sharp rock and scraped a patch on the side of the car and amazingly the familiar orangey-red color appeared. This type of fade would be simulated with a wipe of PanPastelÂŽ  740.3 Burnt Sienna Shade.
The Cast and Crew of this post…
Equipment painted in the transition era had a mostly lead composition and took quite a while to fade. Locomotives and freight cars painted starting in the late 60âs were required to use a paint or coating using less or no lead. This gave us a different chemical change due to the elements. The colors were also much brighter and varied. Remember the 70âs? My Momâs house had a fridge that was two-tone brown and around the corner, red and gold foil wall paper in the hall. Those brighter colors like Rock Island Material Service Red, Light (aka. Bankruptcy) Blue, Railbox Yellow, Conrail Blue and BN Green gave us a much wider palette to work with and they faded into some interesting pastel shades. Hey weâre working with PanPastel so this should be easy.
Recently in the model world much of the available rolling stock is now pre-painted and built up. The manufacturers give us nice paint jobs most of the time but for purists there is room for correction. So for example, I have a group of Burlington open hoppers that are painted Boxcar Red. The actual cars were painted in Mineral Red which had a redder or more orangey tone. I was happy, at the time, to weather them with my airbrush and hope I didnât notice. Years later with PanPastel in my life, I found 380.3 Red Iron Oxide Shade that looked much closer to the color I wanted. Unlike an airbrush, PanPastel with a small Sofft Tool can get right up to the white lettering without obscuring or covering it.
By Rob Manley
“Rust Never Sleeps” Itâs 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 Chicagoâs WXRT which plays progressive Rock and has been since the early â70s. During a recent âPanic Modelingâ attack the week before the âAll American Model Railroad Showâ 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 PanPastelÂŽ on the dining room 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-TipsÂŽ 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. Weâre going to re-coat the model with a Model Masters flat finish to prepare for the PanPastelÂŽ. (For more about using flat finishes read this post:Â Preparing to Weather
Some of the paint was enhanced with more PanPastelÂŽ Paynes Grey Tint 840.8 (a close enough match). This filled in areas that were damaged during the cleaning. Itâs also a method to introduce fading paint to your weathering repertorie. Weâll cover this in more detail in a later blog.
Before cleaning.
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.
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. Itâs a really broad subject and I am going to cover as much as possible in this space.
By Rob Manley
I had a great time at the Amherst Model Train Show back in January this year. I gave a PanPastelÂŽ weathering clinic to a full house on Friday and did demos at the PanPastel table for the rest of the weekend. Itâs 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.
Iâve 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 beginningâŚ
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 âready to runâ. 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 Iâm glad I asked that question. Modelers I met at the show who donât weather gave me some of the answers.
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 donât need an airbrush.
And to #1, thatâs OK âcause Iâll teach you how I weather.
PanPastel is a great product with an amazing limitless number of uses. Itâs easy too. There is really no down side to it as it lasts a really long time. Read more
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. 740.5Â = Pure Color
TINTS
Tints are the pure colors mixed with white.
220.8Â =Tint (Pure Color + White)
SHADES
Shades are the pure color mixed with black.
220.3Â = 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.
740.5Â = Pure Color (Masstone)
740.7/.8Â =Tint (Pure Color + White)*
740.3Â = Shade (Pure Color + Black)
740.1/.2= Extra Dark (Pure Color + More Black)**