How does everyone out there paint their landscaping? Do they use pigments or paints? Brush it on or use an air brush?
If pigment, how does that work/What vendor is best?
If Air brush, what is a good inexpensive one? I was looking at a Testor’s unit at Wal-Mart…not sure if it’s what I need or not.
Mike/Nightshade
Personaly speaking, i’d use a brush Mike. Im prety well practised at using an air brush for weathering cars, loco’s and builings but using it for landscaping just dos’nt seem right IMO.
With a brush you can blend colours to get more subtle tones etc.
If colouring rocks for instance, you would certainly struggle to repressent any sort of ‘releif’ or highlights with an air brush. It would all look the same and very ‘flat’.
Woodland scenics have some very good pigments, there maybe others available but its all ive ever used!
I use brushes.
My basic ground color is latex house paint, tan for ground areas, and dark green for tree covered mountains.
I use acrylic craft paints for any special coloring, like water areas, pavement, rock castings, tunnel portals, and retaining walls.
Nick
Here’s how I paint my landscaping…
Definitely with brushes. Large to small. You want some texture in landscape. Latex paints by the quart or gallon work fine especially when you can get the right colors cheaply at the “mis-mixed” and returned counter.
I use two colors of premixed dirt/ground paint and several related shades for stone. (It’s a good sized layout and the bedrock changes color gradually from end to the other). Have extra greens, white and black handy. White and black are used to adjust shades.
After the base color goes on, I spray everything (plant mister) with diluted india ink to highlight texture. It will go on “too black” but will fade as it dries. I use 1 pint 70% rubbing alcohol to a few ounces of ink. Adjust the mixture to your own preferences.
After the ink dries go over it again with the next shade. Don’t try to cover everything, you want some to a lot of the base color to show through. In fact, a wash sometimes works well at this stage.
For groundcover some people like to paint over the dirt with green and sprinkle the foam onto the wet paint.
Multiple coats in related shades really make a nice effect. You can blend while wet or drybrush or “damp” brush after the base is dry.
Rocks benefit from a LIGHT drybrushing of white or very light grey.
Acrylics are fantastic for details, highlights or full color on small areas. They are water soluable, although windshield washer fluid works best. They can be used anywhere from full strength (a bit too thick though) to a thin wash. Any brand, cheap is usually OK.
At the very least get the following: Raw and Burnt Umber, Raw and burnt Sienna, Black and White and don’t be afraid to experiment. After all if it looks bad you simply repaint it.
Good luck.
Karl
We bought acrylic paints at Wal-mart, a dollar a bottle, black, brown, green, blue, yellow, red, and white, $7.00 total.
We mixed up a standard mushroom jar full of each of the following, using a color wheel toi match the paint to a reference photograph: Dark Gray (rock), Medium Gray (rock), Highlight Gray (rock), Damp Dirt, Dry Dirt, Dusty Roads, Drab Foliage, Peak Foliage and Dead Foliage.
We tested the colors on a small corner of the layout to see how they all worked together, made some minor changes over the course of two or three coats, and then did the whole layout using a one inch brush, and a one quarter inch brush. Dark Gray is very hard to cover with any of the foliage or dirt colors, best to use a small brush there.
We got good coverage using roughly 50% pigment and 50% water.
That brought us to a very basic level of “completion”, a place where it looks ok while running trains, as is, but allows for years of additional detailing. For grassy and bare dirt areas, we paint a small section, sprinkle on WS fine turf, and/or natural sand of varying size, not uniformly fine playground sand. The dirt road closest to the camera above is at the “basic done” stage, while the switchbacks across the valley still need some sand and paint. The grass is only about half “done” and once it’s all on, it will need some detailing to get rid of the the velvety “golf course” look.
The grass tends to take on the color of the paint used to fix it to the layout. Also, painting over areas where grass has already been applied, tends to make it clump up, unless the brush is just used to drop paint onto the grass, with no brush stroking. The best results we’ve had come from working an area and working it, allowing each treatment to dry thoroughly, until it has just the look we liked. Unfortunately, the only part that’s gotten that far along is at the f
Jeffers,
What size is your table? Nice layout. Hope mine looks half as good as that.
Mike/Nightshade
The layout here started out at 45" by 96". We added three inches along the control panel side to bring it up to 4x8, giving us two 8 foot tracks to nowhere (for expansion) and the interchange, then added a 2’ by 4’ drop leaf for staging.
In the medium term the drop leaf will become permanent and another will be added to the other end and we’ll add a foot to the back edge to bring it all up to 5x14. Right now it’s 4x10.
In the long term, the drop leafs will be replaced by additional 4x8 modules bringing it up to 4 by 24.
Thanks for the compliment, there’s still a ton of detailing hours yet to go.
You’ll get yours the way you want it but remember, at that point it’s done and the fun is over. Its a process that we enjoy, I think, not an objective.
I start with ground goop colored to base color, or raw foam.
I use washes with paste acrylics and a brush. For deep colors I apply the paste color full strength and wash it out with water.
The thing I am learning is, more light washes look better than a few heavy ones.
I use old brushes, for I squish, not stroke the brushes.
For anything that you must mix, such as any spackles or goops (hardshell-type scenery), I use masonary powder dyes. A 1/4 tsp, maybe a whole half, of the stuff in four cups of goop goes a long way. In fact, using Joe Fugate’s formula, it turns out dirty white or near grey. To get a slightly more natural earth colour, I use a pinch of “brown” masonary powder dye, and a half-pinch of “mesa”, a deep yellow pigment. What I get is a light yellowish brownish grey, and when ground-foamed, it is very nice.
When using extruded foam, acrylic paint and a broad brush. I thought I had it aced when I chose my “tan” colour at the local hardware store. It was nice and light amongst the choices on the colour sample chart. Oy vey! It was like wet, thick, deep brown gumbo slathered on my layout. The shades of ground foam helped, but it was nearly a disaster. So, pick a light tan, and then go two shades lighter on your hardware store’s charts. When you get home try a small patch and let it dry. What do you think? If you must change it, add cheapo white acrylic paint or a latex primer if you have some olds stuff lying around. Or, if it is too light, add a good shot of “burnt umber” artists’ acrylic paint. In either case, add a mdeium shot of light grey craft acrylic from those little squeeze bottles from Wal-Mart. Blend that, and see if it improves.