West Dorset Terrier: Weathering

I think this may have come out alright in the end. 

Having lacquered it last night I was in a position to see if with weathering I could salvage the model. On balance, I'm actually quite pleased with it, especially considering where it was this time yesterday! Of course, it can only be viewed from one side but on a micro layout that can only be viewed from one side based on a railway with no turntables I think it'll be okay.

Having rambled on, I'll briefly explain how I've weathered it. 

I started off with a black wash. This actually went on last night, so had dried completely this morning. That was actually using DCC Concepts black weathering powder mixed with water to make a wash that I think is a little more random and matt than paint would be, and can look quite nice.

So this morning I began with some detail painting, using artist's acrylics for the ease of use and quick drying time. I used a little orange and brown at the base of the tank to show where it had rusted away, and also at the base of the smokebox door and the smokebox sides working from photos; I believe this occurred mostly from when hot ash collected in the smokebox but could be wrong. I also added a little limescale from the filler cap on the tank, some grease on the coupling rods and some paler yellow on the lettering to create a fading look.

I then used more of the black weathering powder this time on its own (with a set of three makeup brushes that I keep especially for the purpose. They have just the right type of brush fibre that is soft and takes the powder well) applying it on the top of the tanks, boiler and cab to simulate soot and general dirt.

I then moved onto dry brushing, using it on the buffer beams where they faded to a pinky tone, and the edges of the tanks where I used a slightly darker shade of green as the green pigment reportedly would darken over time. I probably could have done a bit more but tried to keep things subtle.

The last couple of things were some grey powder around the base of the smokebox door to represent ash, a dot of black sharpie on the buffers and to tie everything together, I used a very small amount of black powder on the largest makeup brush and dusted it over the whole model.

I hope this catches the run down light railway atmosphere and worn but cared for locomotives.

Edit: I've just added some dry brushed Gunmetal which has created a nice metallic sheen to the smokebox, steps etc.