Airbrush Painting & Weathering

Following the sad news of the death of Missenden organiser and weathering tutor Mick Bonwick we will be reviewing the format and content that we will be offering in the future. Weathering is an enormously popular subject amongst railway modellers and will continue to be a subject that will be included in our course offerings. 

We will publish more information as soon as we have news to share on this subject. In the meantime numerous examples of Mick’s work in the field have been collected together, please click on this link to view the them.

Our Autumn 2021 weathering course offering can be found by clicking on this link.

Intimidated by airbrushes? Held back by poor technique and/or equipment? Thanks to the support of the Mobile Weathering Studio, we now have studio space where you can use the latest state-of-the-art Iwata and BenchVent equipment under the expert guidance of weathering expert Mick Bonwick. You are welcome, of course, to bring your own equipment if you prefer.

This perennially popular course caters both for beginners and for those with some experience. If you’re unsure which equipment to choose, or need some confidence in making a start on weathering your models, this is the course for you. We provide a good selection of everything you might need to get started and, if you already have some or all of it, how to use the right reference material to utilise it effectively.

Airbrush weathering is the main focus, but Mick also explores other approaches – colour washes, filters, dusting etc. – that will be of interest to railway modellers who’ve already done some weathering and want to progress into areas such as fading, streaking, rust-pitting and layering. A lot of this involves hand-finishing as well as airbrush work. The choice of equipment, tools and materials appropriate to your chosen scale, era and location is covered, as are the many techniques that can be employed to use not just paints and airbrush, but washes, pigments, oils, pastels, brushes and more.

Weathering is a topic that’s growing enormously in popularity among railway modellers. Whatever your preferred scale or gauge, whatever your ability level, these highly structured courses will encourage you to create believable, 100% accurate weathering effects based around prototype reference material. You can spend the whole of your time at Missenden working with Mick or you can simply drop in for an hour or so for some expert guidance and encouragement.