For quite a while the fleet on Victoria Street resembled the pristine operations of a museum, this did not truly reflect the cross suburban nature and theme of the layout.
In reality, trams get grubby, sooty carbon residue on the roof of car due to carbon insert trolley shoes, road grime on the trucks and bogies, some slight dilapidation in the appearance of cars heading towards the end of their running life.
Trams that seemed to be rostered on the very few cross suburban routes or running race/footy specials were like the small kid being picked last in sport teams. They are there to make up the numbers.
The next question, is how am I going to weather the trams, using an airbrush in the house would not go down well with domestic authorities, so therefore a water based, tidier solution would be needed.
Enter the use of watercolour paints, the bride has a vast collection of pallets and colours that could be experimented with. The other thing is if I go a little heavy handed with the medium, it could be washed off, the model, the bench and the new carpet if needed.
To alleviate the beading of the paint on an enamel painted or plastic surface a dash of dish washing liquid was added to the solution to break down the surface tension.
SW6 964 working a football shuttle after some weathering.
(cigarette ads and yarra trams logo never actually co exist)
SW6 870 & W5 800 also show some neglect on the bogies and roof.
SEC Ballarat 28 shows its vintage
(This is a reworked Tyco/Mantua Trolley)
Overall I am quite happy with results, you could easily become slightly OCD with the concept and start weathering everything.
From under the wires
Glenn
