I was watching the video of when the MR staff was building the Beer Line layout and they were talking about weathing the road to make it more realistic. I noticed that after Cody brushed on the black india wash that the road took on the appearance that it had just rained. I mean it was perfect, does anyone know how to get that look of wet roads and get it to stay? I am interested to try anything. Thanks for your input.
Thin some gloss medium, say Mod Podge from Wal Mart, and paint the area you want to look slick/wet. Let dry. It will still look glossy.
I experimented with the wet look on my ties, wanting it to look like an oil slick. I overdid it, but you get the idea…
Walter dries up, and may or may not leave stains, but it will not look wet.
Try oil, perhaps a light cooking oil. Of course you are going to try it on scrap material, right?
LION was just thinking off the top of his head so it may or may not work, but I’d sure like some just rained on looks on my layout.
ROAR
The MR book The New Scenery Tips & Techniques has an article by Rand Hood talking about rain scapes. He tinted gloss medium and put a thin layer over the rocks and ground cover. Its only about 2-3 pages in the entire book of about 100 pages but it also has a little part about backdrops and modeling a storm on it plus tips on everything else.
An older and sometimes almost forgotten product is shellac, which adds a gloss and has the advantage in some applications of not having water as a base. The downside is that it has a tendency to add a yellow tinge, normally not a problem except for light colored materials. The other downside is the distinctive odor which takes a few days to go away.
Dave Nelson
In order for the pavement to look wet, it not only has to have a shine, it also has to be darkened. First paint the street a very dark gray. If your street is already painted, go over it with a dark wash of either acrylic paint or ink. Then gloss coat it with thinned gloss medium, or gloss clear from a spray can.