I am making part of my layout into a strip mining facility. I have a side of a mountain carved to make it look like strip mining, I have used pink foam to model the area. My question is does anyone know what color paint to use or using washes what would be the proper wash sequence, what is the best formula to make it look like coal? Also it is a big area so could I air brush it? Thanks in advance for anyones help
Hi,
I too used the pink foam for my layout.
As long as you use a water based paint (latex, acrylic, etc.) you should be ok.
Any other type of paint could possibly meltdown or eat away the foam.
For my coal loads made from pink foam, I used black gloss latex paint, then sprinkled on LL coal or black gravel from craft store. Not exactly sure what color the surface of a strip mine is, but I would think the coal would be much “chunkier” and varied in size before it goes to the crusher. Might have to make some lumpy coal by breaking up some plaster chunks then staining them black (India Ink/shoe polish) or very dark brown (shoe polish or a dark Minwax stain). Some folks have success making washes from alchol and craft paint.
Good luck,
Richard
For what it’s worth.
I Remember coal as looking just like rock. It shows up as a large seam in the cut face, (or wall), in the quarry. the over burden is stripped off, then the seam is excavated for coal production. The seam can be feet to hundreds of feet thick.
For processed coal I believe I used black ballast.
Enjoy MRing.
Lee
Use bin or any kind of latex white primer first, let it dry, then use washes of acrylics to get the rock/coal seam look you’re after mh.
For the initial “priming”, paint the excavated area w/ the color of the majority of the surrounding, earth/ rock for starters. Stone dust/ decomposed granite varies in sizes, this and broken plaster can be used as the talus. Painting the coal veining and/or layers w/ black paint. The same can be diluted to use for washes. You may need to just experiment as to just what finish will present itself the best.
You may also find that just the carved foam won’t give the excavation results you want. Plaster, Sculpamold, Durabond etc can be troweled on and shaped to your liking.
I am not good with colours and am the farthest thing from an artist you will ever see. I Googled “how to paint the Rocky Mountains”. The most important thing I took away from what I read was the more colours you use the better it will look. As most rock is a plethora of colour depending on mineral content, a little of this and a little of that can turn out pretty good. Slop it on and dry brush. Don’t be fussy. If it doesn’t look quite right slop another colour on it.
I bought about twenty of those $2.00 bottles of acrylic paint from Walmart and went at it. I made up a few different washes and let those flow. I started by painting the whole works with a cheap granite grey latex house paint from Walmart. No primer.
This is foam. I used Dap to fill the seams and dabbed the face with it using my finger.
Good luck.
Brent[C):-)]
I think we are missing Steel Mans real question? I think he is looking for what the color should look like, not what to paint the foam with!
Know nothing about a coal vain would look like in real life, I would guess black? But, I could be totally wrong, it might only be black after it is processed?
If I where to do it, I would paint the vain black and let dry. Then I would get some Woodland Scenic fake coal. Looks better than black ballast, it has a bit of shine to it like real coal. Use white glue to attach to the vain.
But, like what do I know?
Cuda Ken
Or perhaps use real coal. Nothing looks more like coal than coal in my opinion, just crush it to the size you want.
Chris
Google is your friend.
Now a real one.
Coal looks pretty much the same in the ground as it does in coal cars.
Hope this helps.
Give this site a try.