Alco RS-3 and Weathering

When the Bachman Sound Value Alco RS-3 was on sale at Walthers last year I added it to my order. It has been waiting for the 4th Division to be ready for multiple trains, so I opened the box yesterday and tried it out. I used the program track to reset its address to 229 (the loco number) and ran it around a bit. The engine sounds cool and it seems to run okay. It has a bit of a lurch going from 2 mph to 3 mph, but I can try to fine tune that later. The "Sound Value" SoundTraxx decoder doesn't have a lot of extra features, but for now I am not using much beyond lights, bells, and horn anyway. In general, I am pleased with it, particularly considering how reasonable the price was.

Today, after reviewing an MRVP how-to video on diesel weathering with Cody Grivno, I tackled weathering the RS-3 with my Christmas airbrush. Well, I started off badly because the Vallejo White, that I intended to use for the thinned fade coat, does NOT thin with 70% alcohol. It coagulates into white splatter dots instead of a thin transparent white. The Microlux Rail Brown does thin with 70% alcohol, so I switched to using it for both a control, fade coat over the initial splatters and as the dirt along the bottom and the trucks of the locomotive.

Since I had a jar mixed up and loaded into the airbrush, I tackled three unweathered box cars. I grabbed them from staging and sprayed the bottom and ends with the thinned rail brown paint for a dusting effect. After cleaning the airbrush, I continued weathering the boxcars with Bragdon weathering powders and a white colored pencil. I brushed rust and soot colors on the roofs, and rust on metal parts and springs of the trucks. I used the white pencil to duplicate chalk marks on the side of a boxcar. Then I gave a quick coat of Dull Coat over the box cars.

Having regained my confidence, I returned to the RS-3. I mixed up a wash of Model Master Grimy Black and 70% alcohol to brush paint into the louvers and other details. After that had a chance to dry, I also used Bragdon powders on the locomotive. While it is a bit more heavily weathered than I originally planned, it certainly looks less toy-like than it did when it came out of the box yesterday. As a bonus, I now have had a little bit of practice with the airbrush.