In a previous post I referred to the fact that one of the train formations I'm modelling is a typical steel train that can be seen travelling on the network in the West Midlands. So in addition to the Dapol covered steel carriers, these wagons also help form a pretty good representation of a typical steel train rake.
Over time I have managed to get hold of around 8 of these wagons - all in the same EWS livery. The Bachmann model is a really nice example and doesn't need much work on it to get it up to standard in the realism stakes. You can buy a so called pre-weathered version - which seems to just have an overall spray of gunk and doesn't do the real thing any justice at all.
For me the first thing to be done is that the wheel back to backs are checked and then the wheel faces and bogies are painted with my trusty frame dirt mix (Precision). The coloured axle boxes are then cleaned off with a thinner soaked bud and bogie detail is bought out by use of a pencil and weathering powders.
Having looked at many photographs of the real thing the level of weathering on the hoods themselves seems to vary from nothing at all, to caked in filth, sometimes even on the same wagon. I intend to replicate that on mine so it won't all look uniformly the same. For the first wagon I only weathered up to the solebar on the sides and 3/4 of each end - something that does seem to be common on most of them. At this point I've still to add the brake pipes and any weathering on the hoods themselves.
I've already mentioned that I've got 8 of these to do so the variation in weathering should really help with making them look like realistic rake of wagons. The final bit of 'extra' detailing would be to have them all a slightly different number so each one is then a model in its own right rather than just a carbon copy of the next one.
Thankfully there are some transfer packs (Fox) available to do such a thing - so thats the next thing to do before anymore weathering is done (hopefully that'll be in Pt 2)
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