Don't Let Rick Touch the Paint!

Although I can muck along and complete a lot of different types of projects, there are certain things you should not let me touch. Paint is one of those things.

Micro-Mark had a sale on Doc O'Brien's Weathering Powders and that sounded like a great idea. After all, you can wash powders off if you don't like the effect. How much trouble could I really get into especially with colors like "muddy red", "grimy black", and "grungy gray". There was one problem though - I am red-green colorblind!

Previously I had dulled all my equipment by grinding up charcoal and using it to remove the shine on the freight cars. It worked pretty well but didn't exactly stick really good. Doc's powders stick a little better but it is hard to get a grip on smooth plastic, especially the trucks. I found that if you add a little water the pigments become paint and stick to the trucks pretty well and the curved steam engines.

Sending photos to my operators, I learned that some of the trucks were too red and I will have to tone them down, I will find out during our September Op Session how the other efforts fared.  All the hopper and gondolas have been worked on and practically all the trucks. I need to get some pictures on how old tank cars weathered to do them.