Mad Max

There are three forms of weathering. Firstly you get the commercial option where models in an eastern workshop are subjected to a 'brief encounter' with a spray gun of sorts that emits a monotone hue, usually along the nether regions and already speeding past the next loco before the paint has hit it. At the other extreme we are often encouraged by the model press to give everything the 'Barry' treatment. coating the plastic with a variety of expensive treatments, powders, dust etc until the item in question would not look out of place on a Mad Max film set. Scale up this 'crud' from 4mm and you get rust flakes the size of large pizzas! Fortunately there is the middle ground where a few exponents recognise that first and foremost weathering is principally about giving the model a working patina that suggests a living model rather than something straight out of the box, whether it be recently ex-works or close to the scrapyard.

However, all is not lost for the Mad Max fans! I encountered the Network Rail RHTT leaf basher set at Wendover this afternoon (a rare daytime loco-hauled and pushed trip on the MET these day) and the only thing missing was Mel Gibson hanging from the roof! The locos and wagons were lost in a fog of excreta that would satify the most Die Hard heavy weather fan!