Boxcar Roof Weathering

The roof of my just completed  boxcar #151 is seen with the weathering mix applied. The two rear cars are the same style cars without the mix.

I did something a bit different with my B&M boxcar roof, a technique I had not tried before. A couple of years ago a two boxcar display by Kip Grant at the NE Prototype meet caught Don's and my eyes, the roofs weathering looked amazing. I asked Kip how he did his roofs...here is his comments about his car roofing.

"It was a take-off on the alcohol over dullcote effect.  I dullcoted the car’s factory-painted roof which came painted silver to make it appear galvanized.  Not wanting just a dull silver roof (duh) I decided to try giving the roof (keeping it off the sides) a bath in the old Sellios stand-by, alcohol/India ink mixture.  The effect provided by the alcohol is enhanced by the blacks and grays that come with the India ink being a part of the process...Kip"
  

Kip's Rutland Ry boxcar roof  is very impressive...more so in person.

Kip Grant's Erie boxcar roofing looks great also. These two views inspired me to try this technique.

What I did...
Using Kip's lead  I began by applying a coat of Floquil flat finish (you can also use Testors Dullcote) then about a half hour later added a brushed on coat of India ink-alcohol mix. I used a top brand India ink (Higgins) along with a dollar store bottle of 70% alcohol. I don't recall how many drops I added to the full bottle of alcohol but it was at least a dozen or maybe 15 drops. What I did was add a few drops of ink to the bottle then applied a bit to a piece of stripwood...applying more drops to darken the mix and applying it once again to the stripwood. I think it took 3-4 attempts till I got a colour I liked. It does not need to be all that dark to complete the affect. As an experiment I thought I would give the mix a try on a silver roof without flat finish. It did not add any affect to the final appearance...so the flat finish or Dullcote is the base one needs...thanks Kip...George Dutka

The roof is dullcoted with the center section moments after it got a swipe of the weathering mix. You can clearly see a difference  above the door even before it drys. Higgins ink and 70% alcohol is what I used.