Window Weathering

[WelshTyneside]

I'm making my first attempt at weathering DMUs this week and have a question about windows. While I'd planned to mask/remove the windows its occured to me that windows too get dirty and, though I don't want them to be black, I'd want them to be a bit muckier than the factory has to offer. Does anyone have any tips on window weathering?

[LCDR]

It really depends upon how much you intend to weather your carriages. DMUs like other passenger stock was cleaned fairly regularly and special attention was usually given to windows. Passenger complained if the couldn't see out. Certainly the driver's windscreen need to be kept reasonably clean. 

 

A common method of cleaning would be a carriage washer which cleaned the vertical surfaces of the coach side but left the curve of the roof and all the underframe dirty. Most carriages went through a washer on a two or three day cycle.

 

What did occur was that streaks of dirt would run down the body side from where the windows had been cleaned at turn-round by a brush from a platform, leaving mucky trails on the lower panels. You can represent this with dry brush streaks, lightly applied.

 

I would suggest you mask the windows and windscreen before you spray. When the body is dry and set, remove the mask and blow lightly over the windows with a very very thin wash of matt brown.  This would represent the accumulation of brake dust which did cling to every surface. 

 

To really go to town with this try to represent the area of the windscreen swept by the windscreen wipers which will be cleaner than the rest.

 

Carriages got much dirtier in winter than in summer especially if the weather was cold and snowy.