I am new to airbrushing… well… new to models as an adult really. I am completing my first RR kit since I was a kid, DPM’s “Bruce’s Bakery” as a getting my feet wet project. It will actually be a used book store when I am done. It won’t actually appear on my current 3x5 layout but maybe my next layout.
Anyway, I have had a heck of time finding Polly Scale railroad paints locally. I don’t want to pay shipping and wait just because I discover I need boxcar red. I DO have a large selection of artisit’s acrylics I bought to do scenery when the local art store moved and was selling them at 75% off. Also, I have bought some Tamiya paints for practicing spraying. There is a local hobby shop with a nice paint selection, but its geared toward wargaming. They have been very helpful (I am the “railroad guy”) and the Tamiya paints very reasonably priced… about $2 an ounce.
My question is… is there a reference I can find to mix up paint so it matches somewhat the polyscale RR colors. I ask because almost all the “howto” stuff I have, book, internet, or video, calls for railroad colors like boxcar red and grimey black. If I have some knd of Rosetta Stone it would make my life a lot easier.
For instance, I bought some DPM modular walls to practice brick tecnhique before I do my book store. Most of the colors in those techniques call for “Boxcar red”, “grimey black”, and “reefer white”.
I think in order to model the real world (the “prototype”) you would be advised to get out and observe the “prototype”: find some brick buildings (or some bricks) and take it from there. And grimy black is like black- only grimy. And reefer white… well, you get the idea.
When you are in your hobby shop looking at the paints, just ask yourself “Does this look like it could be brick color?” or, “What colors do I need to mix to get the color I have in mind?”.
If needed, you should look for photos of brick buildings, grimy black things (locomotives, maybe?), and reefers, to serve as reference.
Keep in mind, you want to model the so-called real world; get a look at the real thing, or find some photos of the real thing, and go for it.
And, IMO it is plausibility that counts- for general scenicking, structures, etc.- make it believable, and it’ll probably be OK.
If trying to mix and color match, start with drops of the colors on a small pallet of sorts. keep record of what and how much. I find that small plastic or tin lids work well. Once you detemine the color you can recreate batches of matching paint from your receipe in the amount needed. I’ll do this often even with RR colors. You may have a greater challenge with what’s available to you, but with trail and error you should be able to come up with almost any color needed. Just make sure to use compatible paint formulas when mixing. This will avoid any problems with the finished product.
If you have trouble with the color reference for tint and shades, pick up a color wheel for a starting point.
Tamiya is an excellent paint. The military color offerings have many colors that are useful for our needs as well.
Thanks for the suggestions… tonight I will see about coming up with some kind of brick color. I will just have to come up with my own recipes…
I had found that PDF… but at this time have no way to print it out in a way that would be useful to me. My main computer is color calibrated so I could probably bring dry samples up from the work room to compare… the work room computer is useless for color.
Welcome to airbrushing. I have 3 model interests that I use airbrushing in. 1/48 scale aircraft, 1/35 scale armor and figures and of course HO trains, all in one room and all airbrushed. Here are some really cool pointers of mine;
1.) Stick with acrylic craft paints from Hobby Lobby, WalMart, etc. trust me the colors are the exact matches for all of the models I mentioned above and with very little mixing. I download various color charts and the matches are right-on.
2.) Use blue windshield wiper fluid to thin the paints, about 50/50 and use about 20-30 PSI on the A/B, try different ratios but I think you will find the one I mentioned to be OK.
3.) Drying the paints made easy; use a hand-held hairdryer set on LOW heat to dry the paints, I use this tool on every paint job and it actually bakes the paint on to a hard finish.
4.) Weathering with an A/B can be done by mixing a small amount of artists chaulk directly into the bottle with the paint color you want, my Badger 200 works really well even with the extra color. Just thin the paint a little more if the chaulk is too thick. Billiard chaulk works as well and the chaulk causes the paint (flat colors) to be as “dead” for weathering.
5.) For high-gloss paints, the brands sold at the stores I mentioned work really good when mixed with a little of the same tone of paint in flat colors, then go over with only the high gloss color, this works well on aircraft and all of my WW II Navy planes are high or semi-gloss.
6.) I have sold many of the big-named brands when working for HobbyTown USA and used them all. I kept returning to craft paints as they are very
I know its been quite some time since I started this thread, but I find myself looking to spray some craft paint tonight on my backdrop to try out that method of doing haze vs brushing in white… my wife is going to be at Michaels so I am going to have her pick up some white craft paint for me.
Will I be able to spray those craft paints (50/50 mixed w/washer fluid) using a medium nozzle? I never did get the large nozzle for my paasche H.
Also, will the blue in the fluid affect the color of the white?
If the paint mixed 50/50 won’t go through your airbrush, thin it a little more. As to the blue showing up in the white, color is really relative. If you are spraying clouds or haze on a blue backdrop you probably will never be able to tell. If you were to paint the mixture on a white surface you might. I really doubt anyone will see a bluish tint in your mixture with the washer fluid. You will more likely see a difference in color when you go room to room because of the differences in lighting. It really depends on what color the color is next to and how abrupt the line separating the colors are. If you look at a picture of a locomotive you may assume the color is the same shade throughout the whole subject because the loco was all painted with the same paint. But because of light, shadow and distance what you thought was the same shade is actually many shades of the same color. Each brick in a building is often not the same exact shade as the next.
I got a 4 oz bottle of delta ceramcoat white and mixed it 50/50 with washer fluid at 25psi. It seemed to work pretty well on my backdrop. At $2 for a 4oz bottle (they were out of the 8oz white) it was very economical, especially when cut with the $2/gallon washer fluid. I was concerned it would tint the white but that did not seem to be an issue.
I need to practice and I may well “re-sky” the backdrop and take another shot at it tomorrow but I will wait until it dries to decide. I may practice some clouds before repainting.
Not sure how those paints will look in an n-scale model but I am gonna give it a try!
I tried the above and couldnt figure out why it was working so poorly. Came here to post a follow up and realize I got it backwards… I had done 80% Alc and 20% water. I will give it another try. That would explain the horrific clumping in my paint even with my filtering!
Cross one mistake off my long list of mistakes I have yet to make…
I am considering mixing in a little acrylic retarder to hopefully slow down drying out on the tip…