Weathering a B&M Hopper

My friend Brian Smith gifted me a B&M hopper and it is now in service on the WRD. 

My friend Brian Smith gave me this nice B&M hopper that is factory painted with some weathering applied. The hopper did not fall into the era he is modeling and he knew it would work well on my layout. Once home I had to replace a broken coupler. I painted the couplers AK fresh mud then adding Bragdon rust once dry. The fresh mud is also applied to the trucks and lower hopper doors as highlights.

I also used a bit of Vallejo rust texture and AK rust streaks as highlight on the hopper body. I then turned to PanPastel tones. Raw umber shade is applied to the body with colorless blender as highlights on the trucks. The hopper has a load with looked an off black. PanPastel paynes grey extra dark (a blackish tone) is applied to the load followed by a light coat of PanPastel coarse coal...it is now ready for service...George Dutka 

The hopper as it looked once it arrived on my workbench.

The products I used are viewed here which helped me to getting this hopper looking the way I wanted.

The load is lastly coated with PanPastel coarse coal. I just brush it on. No need to seal it.

Bragdon rust is applied to the couplers.