I’m modeling the Little Falls & Dolgeville Railroad a small short line that exchanged with the NYC at Little Falls, NY. Little Falls has some unique rock formations called the “Burnt Rocks” that form a big part of my layout. They range from black to an darkish red. A photo of them is attached. My question is for plaster rock formations what color washes should I use. Most of the on-line sites I’ve seen have much lighter rocks. Burnt Siena seems like a good choice and black of course but other than that I’m stumped. Any suggestions by you expert rock painters would be greatly appreciated.
I use Bragdon Foam casting resin and their highly detailed molds as well for my up front and signature scenes. I’ve also done a lot of plaster castings.
The Bragdon finishing suggestions (www.bragdonent.com) start with a dry dusting of black tempera powder, which is then lightly sponged off, causing the black powder to settle in cracks and deep recessions, highlighting the shadows. This is followed by layers of color washes until the desired effect is achieved.
I use craft store acrylic paints, diluted to a wash with water. Burnt Sienna is a good one, along with shades of gray, brown, raw umber and yellow. Take your time. You are looking for a dark appearance, so it’s unlikely you can overdo it.
If you are using Plaster of Paris or Hydrocal Woodland Scenics stains work great. I made the mistake of sealing them early on with flat clear. I had fluorescent lighting and it faded my scenery over the years. I had to replace my scenery flocking and rocks after 15 years of fluorescent lights.
Not an easy task.
WS Earth Undercoat, Umber, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber and Black have turned out very nice for me.
My layout is about 40% mountainous so lots of rocks and tunnels.
This is one of those scenes that is going to be very difficult to model and make it look realistic. The rocks themselves look like something out of a fantasy world.
I always start with my rocks black, and then paint them to lighter colors.
Dave, I’d guess that you could get all of those colours using just flat red and flat black, in varying proportions, although I do sense a bit of blue there, too.
Those colours are similar to some rock formations in Northern Ontario, and in places where the cuts are in reddish granite, the pavement there is pretty-much the same colour.
I am seeing browns as well as a blue cast and a little mold green. My prior layout I used india ink wash, which gave a gray black hue that I found satisfying in the 1980’s.
It’s a good plan, I have no experience making plaster that dark. Doesn’t mean you can’t do it though.
Zooming in i found moss streaks. The black areas actually appear to have blue and purple hues In that black. The rest just appears to be multiple colors of light tondark browns. Figure out those hues, and you will probably get pretty close.
I’d carve the rocks from styrofoam, and for color, I’d start with a dark purple or blue, and mess around with dry brushing, to add the highlights of the lighter colors.
If you don’t like it, you can paint over with the purple, violet or blue, and start again, or you can also practice on a piece of scrap foam, and get the results your looking for.
I’d start by coloring the bulk plaster you use to cast the rocks in the first place. Either with the ‘lighter’ red color, and ‘weather in’ with the darker washes and paint as suggested, or make the rocks the ‘basalt’ black and then lighten and weather them complete with moss and other foliage.
