Weathering structures- Am I weird?

Let me offer you a perspective...For me, it depends:

It depends on the general tone and atmosphere of the overall layout.

It depends on the neighborhood into which the building is to be placed.

It depends on what my creative impulse interests me to do.

FrankM

I don't weather anything. In my world everything is clean and new and I try to keep it that way for as long as possible. Dust and whatever else is floating around in my basement will, over time,  age things slowly and naturally.

Gondolawillie posted:

I never weather ready-made structures, but I do light weathering on kits.

That you differentiate between the two is a little curious.

I weather almost all of my structures; there's 1-2 on the layout that are not and I think that I just overlooked them for some reason.

I guess I weather the kits because I feel I am making my own design. With pre-builts I guess I feel that I don't want to take the chance and ruin them. With that said, on a few pre-builts I have done some light weathering (a little dust of chalk and a spray of dullcoat.

It appears that your weathering is fine.  Your scenic blending is just enough.  Go ahead and weather those ready mades.  Youll do fine with them. 

It's all in the eye of the beholder, I think. In reality, buildings weather at different paces, depending on when they were built, their use and where they're located. If it looks good to you, then it's good to go. On the other hand, if the non-weathered pre-builts look a little too new or toylike vs. your weathered kits, then maybe a light weathering might bring them together a bit. I weather everything pretty heavily, and just a few with light weathering. I'm trying for an overall look (other side of the tracks, mostly) so, the weathering fits my aesthetic vision. I rarely buy built-ups, as my buildings are almost all kits or scratch built but, on one occasion I took an MTH commercial built up and "re-did" it, paint, weathering, signs, details, etc. The physical look of the structure was good (a corner type building) but, in order to fit in with everything else, it needed a transformation or it would have looked completely out of place. But, again, that's through my eyes, not yours. 

  IMO pre-made's clean and shiny looks is yanking on your OCD tendencies for cleanliness and newness. Weathering goes against the grain of the throw away society that has groomed your perceptions to this point.  The only way out is to jump in and swim  

  Try water based craft acrylics and/or powders that can be removed if you dont like it. Stick to plastics till you have confidence in your abilities; it washes easy without damage.

We all are a little weird around these parts ... and opinions are like gondolas, every yard has a few

I'd encourage you to expand your tracks a bit and try some weathering techniques on some of those new, out of the box structures.  If there's one advantage to this community its benefiting from the wealth of knowledge, friendly surroundings, and the encouragement provided by fellow posters.  It's a wonderful environment to learn and grow in as a modeler.  As stated before, the use of acrylic washes and weathering powders will give you the option of washing off and starting from scratch if you so choose. 

Look forward to seeing some pics of your work 

If you are like me, a $25 kit vs. a $100+ ready built makes me pause before making the ready built look old and beat up.  To back this up-  I have not yet (gulp) weathered my new Legacy F7 set ($800) but I immediately weathered the Pennsylvania Flyer starter set locomotive (set price $ 239- loco value, maybe $ 100)  I just got from my son.  And it takes a dedicated hobbyist to take a bottle of india ink/ alcohol to (say) a $ 2000 Legacy Niagara.

Every time a visitor comes they think "weathered" is cool.

From your pictures- it all fits and looks good- I wouldn't change anything.  Also- remember in the real World, people paint, sand blast, tuck-point buildings, making old ones look new.

Here are a few buildings that are important to the campus of Wittenberg University, in Springfield, Ohio, which have, likely, stood for a hundred years, more or less. Weathered?

Recitation Hall is chief among them being an edifice containing classrooms as well as administrative offices. It doesn't look brand-new, but its "weathered" patina does its image no harm, IMHO.

FrankM

   Lately I've started going back detailing parts of the layout (which includes weathering). Less toy more model look. I'm not going for total realism, I run Prewar & some Postwar so that won't fly, but I still like the look and I enjoy crafting realistic scenery. . When taking pictures I have noticed how much "lighting" can effect or change the look of the weathering also. It's a FUN hobby and you can get as weird as you want. It's your little world. Here's pics of my engine service area; before & after water tank and also my engine house. The jury's still out on the engine house. I like grime but maybe too much.

Weathering buildings only makes the trains look better.

Spectacular, CSX AL, the entire vignette and every single element of it. Wow.

FrankM

Thank you Frank. I'm currently working on the sawmill that a friend of mine put together for me that I picked up in Oct. after York. He spent Aug./Sept. up to Oct. 20 working on it but ran out of time to finish it. I weathered the individual hand cut & applied cedar shingles on main roof and am working on installing a ton of pico LED lights though out  the mill. Ran out and have more coming from Evans Design. This is an awesome kit as it comes with all of the interior brass machine castings. I'll post more in a separate thread .

Here is the mill when I picked it up.

Here is a shot of the roof

Some lights in the office section that is on the side of mill over track

I'll echo Frank's sentiments: Beautiful work CSX AL! Great to see your stuff again

CSX Al posted:

Thank you Frank. I'm currently working on the sawmill that a friend of mine put together for me that I picked up in Oct. after York. He spent Aug./Sept. up to Oct. 20 working on it but ran out of time to finish it. I weathered the individual hand cut & applied cedar shingles on main roof and am working on installing a ton of pico LED lights though out  the mill. Ran out and have more coming from Evans Design. This is an awesome kit as it comes with all of the interior brass machine castings. I'll post more in a separate thread .

Here is the mill when I picked it up.

Here is a shot of the roof

Some lights in the office section that is on the side of mill over track

 

Gorgeous

Wow! The BTS sawmill is helluva model!

Weathering should tell a story. If you're modeling a backwoods narrow gauge, well-worn establishment then, go ahead, weather the heck out of it. Most of the Fine Scale Miniatures kits seem to always be of this seamier side of life with holes in roofs, missing siding and significant wear and tear. On the other hand, well-maintained architecture with pointed brick work, reasonable painting schedules, well-maintained non-leaking roofs should not appear that they're dilapidated and ready to cave in under its own weight.

I too am reluctant to weather already built commercial products. None of my MTH/Atlas rolling stock or engines are weathered. I'm mainly thinking about destroying any future sales value, but that may not be based on actual data, just wishful thinking. On my structures, which are all hand built, I do restrained weathering and confine it to areas that would be actually getting weather. So I use weathering powders on roofs to dull them down, add some mildew in areas not seeing the "sun", white guano stains on roof peaks, rust stains from standpipes and stacks, etc. I wash the brickwork with some alcohol/India Ink wash if I want it too look old, but on my current project I'm treating it as a recent rehab, which the real prototype has had.

Bottom line: It's your railroad, do whatever you want!

As a Lionel postwar collector/operator, I weather everything that didn't come from the Lionel factory. It just doesn't seem right to do anything non-reversible to original items.

I don't care about resale value. I am planning to live beyond the Great Lionel Price Crash, which is surely coming.    "Demographics is Destiny."

I weather everything, whether ready built or kit form.  I even weather O scale people.  They're too shiny. 

Weathering is an art in itself'.. And a personal choice each modeler has to make. In the beginning, I too was afraid of ruining equipment.  As time progressed  I lost that fear.  Now I believe, weathering has enhanced my layout to a very realistic look.  However, I don't believe everything must look old and beat up.  Just the right amount for each individual loco, car, structure, and vehicle.  Real trains don't stay spotless very long.  But buildings, cars and people do under normal conditions.  The run down side of town  is a different animal and element.  Once mastered correctly, and using real life examples, weathering will enhance realism on any model...  Just my two cents'...

Yes weathering structures is good but not till your sure you have the right colour!

Take the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) in my Steel mill I painted, it's same colour as the rest of the structures it looked good but depressed me everything looked the same so further research and I found they came in all kinds of colours so I'm going to repaint mine in another colour if I like it then I will weather it with rust streaks, dirt, grime, if I had have done that first up I would have wasted my time. 

No, your not weird.  Roo.

Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Weathering is an art in itself'.. ..However, I don't believe everything must look old and beat up.  Just the right amount for each individual loco, car, structure, and vehicle.  Real trains don't stay spotless very long.  But buildings, cars and people do under normal conditions.  The run down side of town  is a different animal and element.  Once mastered correctly, and using real life examples, weathering will enhance realism on any model...  Just my two cents'...

I agree with you, Quarter Gauger 48. I was eager to get my creative-mitts on creating this particular side of town on the layout. I wanted it to be the place where the men frequented small businesses the way I witnessed them doing when workers exited or were on the way onto the steel mills in McKeesport, PA, several decades ago. The neighborhood was well-worn and weathered, but relatively busy.

FrankM

Frank, your seedy side of town is right on' the money.  Demonstrates correct weathering skills'...The scene reminds me of 8th Avenue, in NY City, around 50 years ago... but on a smaller version'.. I was in uniform, and had a layover in Grand Central Station.  I thought I'd explore the city on foot.  8th Ave had everything you have in the scene and more..  

CSX Al posted:

Weathering buildings only makes the trains look better.

Not only weathering the buildings, but weathering the track, too.  You have done a spectacular job with ALL of you weathering.  I'm especially impressed with your track, however. You have almost made the center rail disappear.  I guess it is a combination of weathering and scenery, but you nailed it.

Tom

Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Frank, your seedy side of town is right on' the money.  Demonstrates correct weathering skills'...The scene reminds me of 8th Avenue, in NY City, around 50 years ago... but on a smaller version'.. I was in uniform, and had a layover in Grand Central Station.  I thought I'd explore the city on foot.  8th Ave had everything you have in the scene and more..  

Really excellent to hear, Quarter Gauger ! Thank you for that added reference about a site that had been knocking-about in my head for years.

FrankM

CSX Al posted:

Weathering buildings only makes the trains look better.

This is a perfect rendition of O Gauge Fine Scale Modeling'.. Excellent in every category.  Let's see some of this beautiful work'...