Aging LIMA EXPERT HL2667 SET railcars aln 668 series 1000 in FER livery

Written by:

Thomas Venturato

One winter afternoon in 2023, my friend Daniele from CFB called me and asked me to age a small batch of 668 railcars in FER livery that had just been released for the shop. Given our long-standing relationship, I felt honored and accepted immediately.

I will briefly describe the steps of the process.

The first thing to do is turn the motorized unit upside down and clean off the excess grease leaking from under the undercarriage with detergent. Set aside the supplied cling film and immediately prepare a new, clean sheet. This small precaution will help preserve the model and initially avoid any risk of unpleasant stains on the bodywork.

We take a pair of gloves and some cotton wool, and delicately clean all the fingerprints on the bodywork and windows.

Let's start with the airbrush, shake the first color well:

TA COLORS TA-C201M - 30ml Matt BEIGE Acrylic Color

Dilution: 70% TA COLORS TA-C001N - SOLVENT - THINNER 125ml

We give the entire model a very light coat so we can remove that annoying shiny patina that makes it look toy-like.

Let's move on to dirtying the sides as in real life with the dust that sticks during the journey of the train, in this case I used:

TA COLORS TA-C604M - DARK EARTH Acrylic Color, Opaque, 30ml

Dilution: 50% TA COLORS TA-C001N - SOLVENT - THINNER 125ml

Let's start giving a more intense tone to the model by alternating extremely light passes of these three colors:

TA COLORS TA-C202M - Acrylic paint RAIL RUST LIGHT Matt 30ml

TA COLORS TA-C203M - DARK RAIL RUST Acrylic Color, Opaque, 30ml

TA COLORS TA-C104M - 30ml Matt BLACK Acrylic Paint

Dilution: 70% TA COLORS TA-C001N - SOLVENT - THINNER 125ml

Once we have obtained the desired shade on the roof, we dedicate ourselves as a final step with the airbrush to blackening the exhaust pipes without exaggerating.

To finish, I added a few spots of rust with a 0-0 brush and enriched the bumpers with grease detail.