Gaining Weight and Blending In

I've been trying to uphold my rule of no un-weathered cars on the layout, so I put my SD40-2 on the bench, It's not quite there yet. Unfortunately, to get it where I want it, I'll have to take the airbrush out of it's cage, if it's nice I might even feed it...while my weathering has improved, I still have a long way to go. But what's interesting is that even a quick dusting of weathering powder goes a long way. Of course it instantly loses that plastic look, but it also, quite suddenly, gains a few tons - a weathered car, just like a structure blends into the landscape.

One of the most important pieces of advice I ever received from an architecture teacher was this; the best architecture is easy to recognize, it should look like it came out of the ground - like a tree or layers of rock and sediment. He didn't literally mean buildings should look like trees and rocks of course, but simply suggested there's no need to fight the landscape that's already there. If you're going to put anything on that landscape, respect it by using the same language. The best, well known example is Frank Lloyd Wright's house at Falling Water (above). Falling Water blends in; it looks like it was meant to be there - like it was always there. This is not to say that some things shouldn't stand out or be prominent and in the case of Falling Water it does both; blends in and clearly has a prominent place on the landscape.

I know comparing Frank Lloyd Wright to model railroading is a stretch, but it does make sense, to me anyway. I guess my point is, if you've been building detailed structures and scenery, but not rolling stock, why not? It takes less than ten minutes to apply some weathering powder to a freight car or locomotive. Keep it simple; just use a dark brown or dark gray. You can't mess it up. To me a new locomotive out of the box is messed up and needs to be fixed, so whatever you do will be better than when you started.