Lionel PS-4 Flat Car Deck Weathering

Matt

Scratch the wood (parallel to the boards) with a wire brush, lightly sand to get rid of the fuzz, then apply an India Ink/Alcohol wash.  Brush parallel to the boards Let that dry, and apply another wash in some random boards.  Dab on some rust spots (dark rust colored chalk in a few spots of you want.

Others will have their own technique, but I have found this to be cheap, quick, and effective

 I used Micro-Mark "Age-It Easy" on this flat.

Johns suggestion works very well on all plastic deck RTR flatcars and kits if you don't want to replace them with real wood. I do this on the Red Caboose 42ft flatcar kits and do some additional distressing. You can take it as far you you want 

butch

Here is how "Age It Easy" looks on resin crates. 

The India ink trick has been a long used way for modelers to weather things that I gave thought to trying. I would have tried it, but, I didn't want to drive all over town trying to find a bottle and I wanted to see how this "Age It Easy" would work. I am well satisfied the product.

Micro Mark has some good staining ink.

Make your own ink wash/stain, it's real cheap and easy. You can make it as light or as dark as you want.

How I weather wood decks is to empty a pencil sharpener onto the deck, then rub the grindings around with a paper towel.  This will put just the right amount of graphite into the wood.  If you put too much on an area, you can just rub it harder to lighten it up.

This is the cheapest of all, and IMHO, the best.

BRUCE

So I went to the hardware store today because they let me walk around in there with my dog and decided to buy some Minwax driftwood stain and some Ebony stain. This si my first one but I like the results. I put down the driftwood first which is that perfect brownish grey then added some spots of ebony to break up the grain textures coming through and I like it

Happy New Year!

Starting off 2015 with #874 on the bay.

Applied deck look using an Exacto knife, diluted black, sandpaper, rust powder and 4 colored pencils.

I like the way SIRT did his...WOW...Happy Railroading...

Thanks Larry.

I was fooled on the first car I did awhile back thinking I just needed to add some stain. The Lionel wood deck

has some continuous patterns with grain that runs every which way. Unfortunately the grain doesn’t run straight across each single plank like real boards but over many other areas in any direction. Not as simple as just staining.

The Balsa wood (?) doesn’t accept or highlight stain evenly like pine or oak would do. So I attempted a new option this time.

Going over each groove with a sharp black pencil and a wood block guide also helps define the lines for the cross pattern.

S.

A light spray of Dull-coat and pastel chalks followed by another light coat of Dull-coat

I like SIRT's too, a little too involved for me though, i'm committed to good modeling but don't have that kind of time. I didn't like the way the grain looked either after staining but ill hide it with loads. Besides, this train is for my uncle so it doesn't need exquisite detail just has to be "close enough"

Love the B & M flatcar choice, what did you use for the rust colors. I use a lot of burnt sienna, thanks

Brian – BRAGDON ENTERPRISES 63 WEATHERING POWDER DARK RUST  ebay

Matt – The entire car only took under 1 hour to complete. Not that involved actually. 

The Lionel TOFC car below was also done with a black colored pencil and stain combo.

As you can see using colored pencils on the MTH plastic deck works well too.

S.