observation: few seem to "weather" model trucks

[SpreadAxle]

The state boy will notice that one from the far side of the interstate!

I wouldn't leave the yard (or anywhere else) with that tire on my trailer, especially a tanker!

I agree Johnny. It's just that I see it so much, I added it to this truck. It's just how some fleets are, though. "It's still got a few miles left", or, "We'll change it when you get back" are things I've heard in the past. When I worked for a reefer fleet that did a lot of drop and hooks, I always found a trailer that looked like this one. Off to the tire shop it went. Thankfully we carried spares already mounted, but sometimes they weren't much better. When I left and went to a much larger fleet, I could call and they would have me go somewhere without a problem, minus the approval process that the shop would have to go through that took forever.

Bent fenders like this one are what happens when that tire policy is practiced. Hence the new tires on the left rear.

this truck and trailer are almost done. When I get a few minutes undisturbed, it'll be finished.

[Aaronw]

I would have guessed you would get the answers you are getting, its a bit like asking custom car builders why they don't weather. The subjects are usually well cared for and the builders don't have a lot of practice weathering. Personally I am much more comfortable doing fairly heavy weathering like you would find on heavy equipment or armor, than the subtle weathering you would find on most semis. Like many I will do some weathering on the greasy bits, but usually leave the cab nice and clean.

[Guest Johnny]

Ray! The place I am starting to see it more and more are on the container trailers and some of the guys buying up old fleet trucks and signing on to haul from the rail terminals! All they do is hook and run (they say time is money) I have doubts these guys even check the trailer out.

Not a day goes by here where I live (lots of truck traffic from Joliet area coming through here) and the state always seems to have one pulled over for a roadside inspection just down the road!

A local company that leased on to haul containers told his drivers that they will not move a triler 1 ft. unless everything checks out. If they get busted because they failed to check it they pay out of their pocket for the fines!

Wish all companies were like that!

I do lie the mismatched tires and the fender damage though!

[highway]

I have doubts these guys even check the trailer out.

I guess I'd better change the tires on this one then!!!

They look too new for a container!

Edited October 25, 2010 by highway

[Guest Johnny]

Matt I was following one the other day and I wouldhate to see the wear pattern on thosetires! There was not one set that were bolted on square, they all wobbled!

[Paul B]

Here are a few of my models that I have lightly weathered. I use water based artist pastels and bush them on dry. Very forgiving as I can wash them off.

[car lover 1996]

I weather some of my things. Check out my recent astro build that I weathered. Sometimes what I try to do is get two of the same model and weather one and build the other one regular.

[car lover 1996]

I weather some of my things. Check out my recent astro build that I weathered. Sometimes what I try to do is get two of the same model and weather one and build the other one regular.

here it is. and by the way,I remade the grille to look like a 1980 model

[muleskinner]

Weathering is like every boby has previously said, it is entirely up to the builder and what he wants to depict in his building. Some of it too depends on where you live in the states and what major haul ways are near and industries the rig is hauling commodities for. about 90 percent of the trucks are interstate and local haulers and really don't pick up much grime except for the bottoms as on of the members mentioned. Dump rigs and construction equipment would pick up what ever the environment they are working, to include dust, dirt, and ocassionaly tar and caulking for road surfacing. These type of trucks are usually the ones which see very little time for washing and set most of the down time on the joob site or in the shop area. Most of the dirty rigs can also be attributed to driver neglect and also the company.

I live im the Pacific Northwestern part of the states and here the biggest majority of rigs are logging trucks. Maybe one out four look as though they had never seen a wash rack in a week or two, but then again there was a saying when I worked in the logging industy which plainly stated " If a truck or peice of equipment isn't dirty or grimy then it Ain't been working" . I sure some of the readers have seen some of my models on this site and others where it looks like they are ready for the rust pile and spent their years never seeing water. But the models I depict are models which spend their time in the woods and see civilization ony for the purpose of heavy maintenance and to the worse, scrapping. The long hours which is involved in the logging industry prevents a lot of operators from doing house work as we called it on their rigs and equipment. When you get up at three in the morning take the long drive to the woods and work nine to ten hours and then head back on the long haul home, house keeping is the last thing on your mind. For most of my logging career I was a cat skinner and spent a lot of time in choking dust in the summer and up to my neck in mud during the winter, some times to the point where you couldn't tell me from an attached piece of the equipment. My Dad was a logging truck driver and used to laugh at me when he saw me on the landing, but after three or four trips to the woods his clean logging truck looked like it had been put thru h*** and back and the laugh was on him. Logging truck drivers will mostly use a wash rack equipt with a fire hose of high pressure to clean the grime and dust off their rigs when they come in. But in the woods the closest i've ever been to a fire hose or high pressure hose was fighting fires on the site!

Interstate trucks in turn will kept clean to keep up the tight appearance of the commodity they are hauling and the company name. About 90 percent of the Owner Operators have to abide by this rule also and it also shows the pride which the operator takes in keeping up a good appearance, which the commodity shipper looks for.

There is an old saying that states "Cleanliness is next to godliness" and in the trucking industry today it is true. If you don't keep up the appearance of your rig, it reflects on you the driver and deteres you from getting the high paying jobs. Now I'm not saying that you have to stop and wash and dust off the rig at every rest stop or so but it a fact, the cleaner the rig in the eye of the shipper the better the haul and the better chance of getting the haul and the advertising of the shippers company. But then again it just depends on the area of US Industry you work in.

Its the same with building models, you build and weather to depict the area of the industries you are building the model from and what area of the country you live in. All the comments I have read are right and if you compare which part of the states those comments are coming from you can pretty well guess which industries are located there and how equipment is used. My opionion on the whole subject is it doesn't matter how much weathering you apply to a model, it is in the eye of the builder and what he wants to state about how the unit is used in the area where he lives or how he keeps up his own rig if he is an operator. No two builders are the same and they each see things a little different from the next builder. Maybe one builder sees a model someone else did and finds something that doesn't look right to him but in the eyes of the builder it is because,he saw the same on the 1:1 he is trying to depict.

Weathering is not an easy task and a lot of people shy away from it, but with practice it is easy to master. I was affraid to weather a model but once I took and old model and began to weather it into an older styate, it became easy and now a part of my model building. To those of you who are affraid of it I say this, you won't learn unless you try it and there are a lot of people out there who can help you with advise and technique. All you have to do is ask. For those of you who do weather drive on and enjoy the art of modeling.