PanPastels - A Second Look

A string of cars Peter and I applied PanPastels to...though I would do a group photo.

After two workshops with Peter Mumby using PanPastels I thought I would give you a second look at some of the cars we did...we did take a lot more photos than was used in the original post. Here they are along with some of my thoughts regarding this product.

After our second  work session I had used some weathering on a Athearn wooden  REA boxcar body that I had yet assembled. I though I would get the body weathered then paint the underframe and wheels. Once the day was over I did not like how the weathering affect turned out on the car. I should have painted the roof first. This was a good chance to see if the weathering could be washed off as reported by PanPastels. Yes it does wash off with ease. I used my fingers to rub the sides but a tooth brush might help if one has a lot of details that the pastels was applied to. I did not use any soap.

I decided to weather this just out of the box CPR boxcar. I began with a light gray pastel which was applied very lightly. I then went over the door details and the rivet lines with a rusty looking pastel. I also used these on the roof and ends. I think it turned out pretty good giving the car a lightly weathered look.

For minimal weathering I still like the chalk effect, but if you want a subtle overall coating to a piece of rolling stock, or a heavy weathered car this is a great product. I found it is best to give the car a light overall coat using your colour of choice followed by highlights using an alternate shade. I think my favourite rolling stock choices for this project are open top and covered hoppers. They seem to really stand out on the layout.

I tried PanPastels on a CPR outside braced boxcar. I was wondering how it would look and how I would get the colouring between the bracing. Using the wedge sponge I was able to do a pretty good job but had a lot of areas that I could not get at. To get the overall coating effect to the sides and ends I used one of my brushes that are my powder weathering brushes to push the pastels into the areas I could not get at with the sponges. This seemed to work to some degree. I finished this car with Bragdon powders were no pastel coating appeared. From my limited applications I think the pastels work best on smooth side equipment....George Dutka

The sides have been finished but as one can see the ends still need some brushing to get the pastels into the areas that the foam brush could not reach. A light overcoat of pastels toned the boxcar red down to a more realistic look.

My outside braced boxcar after PanPastels

I pulled this car out of long time storage to become my first go at PanPastels. I used most of the browns and rusts that Peter had in light amounts. I actually used my fingers near the end of the process to help streak and blend the pastels.

Peter's finished boxcar and hopper on the WRD after a Monday afternoon workshop. He gave both cars a health dose of weathering.

Here one can see me working on my CPR boxcar while Peter dulls down his ONR boxcar during last weeks workshop.