Well I finally started my 6’ diameter roundhouse. I can’t remember who told me about using flour for mortar on brick buildings and have to say that it workes great. It’s fast, easy and when Dullcoated it looks even better. I also put on a little of alcohol and India Ink. It looks absolutely fantastic.
Is it a good idea to paint the inside walls of the roundhouse? I have to build 11 Walthers kits which are red. I was thinking about painting the inside walls flat black or maybe gray. Does anyone else do this or seen one that was painted.
From what I have been able to see of the inside of the former Nickel Plate Road Frankfort roundhouse, the inside walls appear to be the “other” side of the bricks that it was built with. The inside color appeared to be a little darker than the exterior, but that could have been shadows too.
My thought is that if you paint the walls black, any interior detail will completely disappear. I don’t know for certain, but I don’t think that the interior would have been painted black on any prototype, the builders would have painted a light color (if they painted at all) to maximize the usable light for working. Good luck with it!
Early roundhouses were painted WHITE on the inside.
You have to remember that even with the advent of the edison bulb, these places (car shops and roundhouses) were DARK at night due to poor lighting. This is one of the reasons for so many windows. Therefore the walls were often painted WHITE to help reflect light back in.
Add some soot from steam engines, and you have some real nice grimy walls with character.
To hide light leaks at wall joints, I run a thin bead of glue down the corner. Not only does it reinforce the corner, but it also provides a solid joint which can be painted over. (It may take several layers of paint to hide light leaks if using a light color like white. (Maybe a gray base first?))
I’ve got an Atlas roundhouse. I painted the insides flat black to suppress the glow from the interior lights, but then I printed a cinderblock pattern on card-stock on my computer, and cut sections to fit the inside, and glued them to the walls:
I’ve always used plaster of paris for mortar and concrete. It comes in a powder form and it’s cheap and sets nice like the real mortar. You can tint it easily and only mix what you need for each project . Add sand for effects or aquriam stone . Seems like lil critters would be drawed to flour !
Really? How do you tint plaster of paris? Flour has always been a bit too white for me. I’ve had to apply a wash or weathering powders overtop of it with mixed results.
I’ve tried flour (sealed with Dullcoat) but now I use hydrocal for mortar. After I rub it in, I mist the surface with water to set the hydrocal. After it sets for an hour or two, I take a paper towel and rub it down until I leave the desired amount. Then I give it a wash of very dilute India Ink in water to tone down the whiteness.
I spray paint all my building kits before assembly. For something like a roundhouse I would paint both interior and exterior walls primer gray, then paint just the outsides brick red (and then using a small brush color about half the bricks different shades of red and brown) and then add a mortar color. You could leave the interior gray, but most RR building interiors were light green. Tamiya “Cockpit Green” is a good match I think.
I have used it to fill in the lettering when we stamped out lead cable identification tags. I would rub it on and then wipe off the excess from the tag, and the letters stood out for easy reading. I am considering using it for mortar and would like any thoughts on its use.
Glad its working out for you 8500HP, and if it was my thread that put you on to this method I’m glad I helped some one out. thanks for the mention Crandall [:)]
As for the wall interior sides I would paint them black first as a light block barrier, then paint them whichever colour you wanted inc grimy white, also I would use caulk down the corners to seal them from light after assembly and paint it black also.
Have you considered printed brick sheets for the inside instead of paint??? there are seveal free samples online you could print out and glue to the inside of the structure.
Yes it was you now that I remember. Thanks for the tip. It does work great, isn’t to white, yet from a distance it looks natural. You can believe how fast it is to use when you have 70+ big walls to do. I am assembling (1) Moderarn Roundhouse and (10) add on stalls to get a 90% complete circle. You made it much easier for me to mortar everything.
A lot of older industrial building interiors were painted a light color, grey, tan, or green from about 4 feet up to the ceiling. The lower 4 feet or so was painted a dark grey, brown, or green. The light color provided for brighter light and the dark color allowed dirt to accumulate and not be seen.
As mentioned above, many times the window glass was also painted to reflect light back in to work areas, or to provide security. As panes were broken out, the replacement pane of glass might not be painted, giving that odd look that many industrial building windows have of painted and non painted panes of glass.
One of my two roundhouses is a craftsman kit by South River. I painted it according to the recommendations in their manual. Black up to the windows and off-white above that. Here is a photo:
If you are painting it so that it will look realistic inside, than I would recommend a light color on the walls. If you are painting it to prevent light from shining through the walls, the black or other dark color is appropriate. If you want both, I’d paint the first coat black and then white over it. You might need two coats of white.
