Rusted Boxcar Doors

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about trying out a product called Rust Effects made by Modern Masters on the roof of one of my GT boxcars.  I described the results as being not exactly a home run.  Well, after having that boxcar out on the layout for a couple of weeks, that roof has kind of grown on me.  At least a little bit anyway.

Also since then, I had the idea of trying it out on another freight car as well.  But this time, I thought I'd put it to use on the doors.  I pulled a pair of Southern boxcars from the storage cabinet, and ran masking tape all around one door on each car before I began.

Here's my results...and I think these are looking pretty good.

It was about time that these two waffle-sided boxcars made another appearance out on the railway, so I kept them on the workbench for an extra day while I gave the doors the rust treatment.  The results do seem to be a bit random, but with some practice, I think it could be controlled at least somewhat.

Close up view of one of the doors.  The product is very thick, and I think it shows a bit when viewed up close, but I like the colouration.  The speckled appearance on the tack board is from the rust activator component, which is spritzed on from a spray bottle.  The white specks will clean off easily with a dampened Q-Tip, but I kind of like it, so I might leave it as is

And lastly, I'll spare you all the details, but this industry on the layout has certainly seen better days.  It's been used as a destination for 60' and 86' high-cube auto parts boxcars, but I haven't been able to actually spot any cars in there for some time. This building is about to go through a little bit of workbench re-habilitation.

This industry is been made up of 4 Armstrong Electric Motors kits that I had kitbashed into one large building. I like the style of the building, with all the windows and concrete columns. I also have another section from it that's missing from the photo. And at one time, it really did look a lot better than this. Hopefully I'll be able post progress updates on it soon.