Weathering with Pastel Chalks

I acquired a hefty HO scale collection from my cousins several months ago, and included in the boxes of stuff were two sets of weathering chalks.  I have never owned any weathering chalks, and hadn't given chalks too much consideration until recently when I began working on some weathering projects.  I was looking for a way to give some newer rollingstock a light and subtle coat of grime, without going overboard like I tend to do when working with acrylics and oils.  I remembered these sets of chalks, found the box that they were stored in, and decided to give them a try.  I simply used a soft bristled paint brush, and rubbed it over the stick of chalk to pick up some color and lightly dusted the plastic model.  This was after a light fade coat using an airbrush.

I was very impressed how well the chalks worked, and they gave me exactly the light weathering that I was looking for.  The weathering victims this time were a pair of LBF hi-cube boxcars.  I feel like I am well equipped now for my future weathering projects, using an airbrush, acrylics, oils, and now chalks.

My weathering steps were:

• Graffiti
• Fade coat using an airbrush (includes flat clear to seal during this step)
• Dusting of chalks using brown, red, and black.
• Dullcoat
• Safety Stripes
• Chalk touch-ups
• Dullcoat
• Trucks received a mix of Polly S rust and grimy black.
• Fox Valley Models 36" medal wheelsets.

I don't know anything about this brand of pastel chalk (Alphacolor by Weber Costello), but it seems to work very well for light weathering applications.  I only used the top 3 colors so far, and just a touch of the orange on the TBOX black doors.  I haven't used the set of grey's yet.

Here are the completed models in front of a BNSF prototype photo that I was using for reference.

This is a photo of the TBOX body prior to any weathering steps.

Here is the BNSF body with only graffiti decals applied.  The difference between the shiny out-of-the-box model and the completed weathered version is significant.