Designing a shadowbox diorama

[Hauk]

Would the machinery in a functioning shop tend to have a slightly oily sheen rather than visble dry rust?

Very likely. Some referenser images i have seen confirms this.

[Hauk]

"What ifs" notwithstanding, everything looks quite satisfactory. Given the cleanliness of the rest of the building, any dust on the machinery would have to be extremely subtle. -- Russ

You have a point, Russ. But I think that in the end the workshop must be more dirty!

[nk]

I am going to suggest that artists paints are the way to go for subtle weathering effects. They stay reworkable for days even a week or so, and because the solvents are non-polar there are no tidelines. You can mix your own colours so you are not tied to a palette thought up by someone else. The versatility of oils for weathering is second to none. There are some health and safety issues with the pigments, but read up on it and be careful. They take practice and are a little expensive, but tubes of paint will last a long time.

[Bernhard]

This looks quite convincing to me.
For weathering, I prefer Vallejo's ready-made washes. That way, I can be sure of getting the same shade everywhere on my large ore unklarer. However, these water-based washes are actually quite difficult to blend.
What bothers me a bit about your crane is the horizontal streaking on the main girder. If anything, I'd expect these to run vertically, following the force of gravity.
And the lathe definitely needs plenty of grease on the gears.

Bernhard

[Hauk]

This looks quite convincing to me.
For weathering, I prefer Vallejo's ready-made washes. That way, I can be sure of getting the same shade everywhere on my large ore unklarer. However, these water-based washes are actually quite difficult to blend.
What bothers me a bit about your crane is the horizontal streaking on the main girder. If anything, I'd expect these to run vertically, following the force of gravity.
And the lathe definitely needs plenty of grease on the gears.

Bernhard

Thanks for the input! Yep, the main beams do not look good. I have already scrubbed it down and considering a full strio-down and repaint vs. just giving it a ne overspray of the base color.  I should probably strip it down proper to avoid paint build-up.

For the lathe I need to replicate some oily areas with a was that dries gloss/semigloss (suggestions for how to chieve this?).


Take a look at the reference pictures of lathes on my blog for the effect Im looking for:

https://trainspast.wordpress.com/category/real-trains/

 I should have studied them a little more thorughly before I started! 

[Hauk]

I am going to suggest that artists paints are the way to go for subtle weathering effects. They stay reworkable for days even a week or so, and because the solvents are non-polar there are no tidelines. You can mix your own colours so you are not tied to a palette thought up by someone else. The versatility of oils for weathering is second to none. There are some health and safety issues with the pigments, but read up on it and be careful. They take practice and are a little expensive, but tubes of paint will last a long time.

Any suggestion for the thinner to use when making washes with artist oil paint?

[Hydrostat]

For oil painting I used balsam turpentine oil, but keep in mind that color tends to dry for quite some time. White spirit and turpentine substitute may be the better choice for model painting. Another advantage of oil based colors: applying pigments onto a nearly dried surface leeds to very subtle effects. I think one can control that better with oil than water based colors, too. This works on dried acrylics as well. For oily surfaces I used a water based product (I think it was Vallejo oil stains) at the underfloor switching device, but found it hard to replicate the effect later on some Wheelsets. Went back to oil ...

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Any suggestion for the thinner to use when making washes with artist oil paint?

Have a look at VMS.  Their universal weathering carrier works well for oils and is relatively fast drying.  Oils are pretty popular with the military set, so there are products to work with them intended for modelling, in that they dry faster and are good for the sort of effect that you are after.

[Bill Gill]

Here's a question about using oil paints for weathering that I've wondered about for quite awhile:
I've read many times that modellers put a dab of oil paint on a piece of cardboard and let it sit there some length of time to absorb much of the oil from the paint before they apply it to a model.

My understanding is that oil is both the carrier and the binder for the paint. So if much of the oil is removed and thinner is then added to the remaining paint, is there a long term problem with oil paint not adhering to whatever it's applied to? 

[nk]

Any suggestion for the thinner to use when making washes with artist oil paint?

I use mineral spirits/white spirits, which should be mostly aliphatic compounds, which have a low toxicity. Just check to make sure there is not a lot of aromatic content as that is very bad for you. Good ventilation is also important.

Here's a question about using oil paints for weathering that I've wondered about for quite a while:
I've read many times that modellers put a dab of oil paint on a piece of cardboard and let it sit there some length of time to absorb much of the oil from the paint before they apply it to a model.

My understanding is that oil is both the carrier and the binder for the paint. So if much of the oil is removed and thinner is then added to the remaining paint, is there a long term problem with oil paint not adhering to whatever it's applied to?

The main purpose of reducing the amount of oil with cardboard before using it is to adjust the binder/pigment ratio. With less binder, the pigments play a larger part of the paint film's topography and is increasingly rougher (on a microscopic scale) so you end up with a matte paint film. With more medium, the oil forms a smoother surface and you get a glossier paint film. I can't see any problem with a reduced amount of oil, there should still be enough to hold the paint film together.

I am not sure of the difference between carrier and binder (and medium). To me they seem to be the same for a paint film. Can you tell me what you mean by carrier?

[Bill Gill]

Thanks nk, My understanding is a "carrier" is/are the ingredient(s) that make the paint fluid, e.g. water is a carrier for acrylic paint and so are flow aides. Acrylic resin could be both a carrier and the binder.

[Hauk]

Have a look at VMS.  Their universal weathering carrier works well for oils and is relatively fast drying.  Oils are pretty popular with the military set, so there are products to work with them intended for modelling, in that they dry faster and are good for the sort of effect that you are after.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is VMS?

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is VMS?

https://www.vms-supplies.com/vms-universal-weathering-carrier

An interesting Polish company. Basically specialise in weathering.  Their products form a system, but quite compatible with others as well.

All the big companies do this sort of thing, although in many cases the plethora of products is just confusing. The VMS website is quite clear and the videos useful, if dry. Good service. Their products all work as advertised in my experience.

[finescalerr]

I looked up VMS yesterday and thought their universal weathering carrier might be the must useful solvent I've ever encountered. It's yet another crucial modeling tip a lot of people will overlook. Thanks, Lawrence. -- Russ

[Hauk]

https://www.vms-supplies.com/vms-universal-weathering-carrier

An interesting Polish company. Basically specialise in weathering.  Their products form a system, but quite compatible with others as well.

Thanks for the tip, Lawrence!