Slow Weathering and the Vital Few

In my last post, I introduced slow weathering, a deliberate and consistent approach to tackle complex weathering projects and achieve high-level results. However, in that discussion I failed to address the major (and obvious) issue with the approach: its slow! Compared to other weathering approaches, except procrastination or avoidance, slow weathering is not very productive. And so, for modeler’s seeking to weather an entire fleet of rolling stock and locomotives and achieve high-level results, the question becomes how should slow weathering be applied?

My solution to this problem draws from the Pareto Principle, or “law of the vital few.” The principle states that in many instances 80% of an outcome can be attributed to just 20% of the causes. Or, stated more broadly, most of an outcome can be attributed to a few “vital” contributors. Applying the principle to model railroading, it follows that just around 20% of weathered models will contribute to 80% of the visual perception of a highly detailed and realistically weathered fleet.

It may seem that applying the Pareto Principle to model railroading is a stretch. The principle describes an economic theory, and it is not clear if it applies to art and visual perception. Regardless of an imperfect fit, the principle contains the important lesson of project selection and prioritization: Allow a few "showcase" models do the heavy lifting for the desired result of the whole.  

Let’s consider a case study:

A typical train on my layout consists of 20 cars and two locomotives. Setting a discussion of locomotives aside for now, under the Pareto Principle, only 20% of the cars (4) will contribute to a vast majority of an operator’s perception of a realistically weathered and detailed train.

This means, that when I sit down at the bench to weather a train of cars, I can focus on devoting special attention and adopt a slow weathering approach to a small number of cars in the train to achieve most of the desired visual outcome. The remaining cars in the train, the other 16, can be weathered with a more efficient “fleet” weathering approach. Granted, these cars still contribute to the overall outcome and so it is important that they are weathered skillfully and adequately support the vital few heavy lifters.

Locomotives, as I alluded above, are a special case. On model railroads, locomotives tend to have a greater impact on the perception of the overall quality of the fleet than other equipment. Therefore, I consider any locomotive to be part of the vital few and adopt a slow weathering approach when weathering and detailing locomotive projects.  

So, if you find yourself stuck at the bench slowly weathering your fleet of rolling stock or endlessly constructing structures for your town or city, consider applying the Pareto Principle and allow a vital few models to do the heavy lifting.