So, like many others, I have struggled to get a convincing cement look using paint. The Easter Bunny brought my son something called Tech Deck. It’s basically miniature skateboards with plastic half pipes and ramps that you can (allegedly) do Tony Hawk type tricks with your fingers. The tops of the ramps are painted to look like concrete that look really convincing. Seems like a sponge technique would be a good way to achieve the look based on looking at these toys.
Sorry I have no photos but check them out if you get a chance.
Has anyone looked at Floquil Polly Scale acrylic paint? They make ‘Concrete’ and ‘Aged Concrete’, and also make the ‘Concrete’ in their solvent based line as well. I used the ‘Concrete’ color on some concrete ballast blocks in a snow plow model - Must look pretty convincing as I got a 2nd place award in the ‘non-revenue’ category at the local meet last week!
The Floquil and PolyScale paints do a pretty good job of simulating freshly-poured smoothed-over concrete. The real challenge for us mrr’s is to make our ‘worn-out’ concrete surfaces look like the real thing, with stones of all different shapes and colors peeking thru the cement. If you get a closeup look at an old concrete structure or pavement, you’ll see there is a whole ‘rainbow’ of different colors.
I’ve never been happy with the “concrete” and “aged concrete” paints. As Ken said, they look too much like freshly poured concrete. On the recommendation of my LHS owner I tried Tamiya XF-20 medium grey. To my eye it looks better. It’s not perfect but I wonder if it’s possible to make a single colour of paint that resembles concrete. Concrete is a complex and subtle mixture of colours. I’ve found the same with asphalt. It’s easy to make freshly-laid black asphalt but, like old concrete, old asphalt is a subtle mixture of colours.
I used a low tech approach while building a Bar Mills kit - I sprayed a light uneven coat of Krylon gray primer over an equally uneven coat of white tube acrylic paint on a wooden surface to imitate an old, cracked concrete sidewalk.
Hello,
I will agree with Jim on this one…
I like Floquil’s mixes on the Concrete choices.
Here is the description I gave this scene… Please share your Opinions…
This is a Bridge Underpass section of Highway, it’s length is as wide as the ‘Plate’ the bridge is built on. This section is only 10" wide, this will go under (perpendicular to) the Bridge structure.
It is meant to look like a concrete Highway, not in much dispair, fairly good.
I used Floquil Lacquer; ‘Aged Concrete’ as a base coat, painted markings, carved, & blackened joints, & then powder to make wear marks. To me, it looks good, I shot it with the background to balance the look & effect.
I agree with jrbernier, buy the paint as I find it convincing enough and there is no need for any texture by the addition of Portland cement or anything else. Lately, I don’t even buy cement or aged cement colors and simply mix light gray and tan acrylic (Ceramicoat) paint together to get the color I’m after. Yes, the color looks different from batch to batch, which also looks very realistic, to me.
Apparently I must be doing something wrong as when I use the Floquil Polyscale Concrete or Age Concrete colors they look way too Yellow to me instead of the gray we have in western PA.
I have even painted a piece of Plastruct white styrene with stripes of all the paint colors I have and use this as a chart in determining what color i want to use!
I have taken the 1 foot strip of paint chips outside and put it down on my sidewalk and the Concrete colors are NO WHERE near the color of my sidewalk!
Where are they getting their colors from?
I even took them to a 75 year old Poured Concrete Coal Tower (which should be AGED enough) and none of the concrete colors match!
As for the color that close matches my sidewalk in front to my house (which is over 10 years old now) is SP Lettering Gray. Which is what I am now using for my Concrete Block buildings on my layout as I am doing a layout in the Western PA area. SO my colors match MY area not some Western, Southern or Northeastern area!
While I believe that each area of the country the CONCRETE will be different colors
I just wish these Paint Companies would ACTUALLY research their colors a little bit more!
Absolutely, it differs across the country. Even, I think based on the era it was poured. A lot of concrete is closer to a dirty white than any shade of gray out there. Then there is the weathering on top of that which adds several layers of color. I’ve also seen some older concretes that have a red undertone, like they used a dirtier sand back then.
Interesting that you ask this question. There happens to be an article in the latest, April, issue of Railroad Model Craftsman called Portland Cement Scenery, where the author does exactly that on some bridge piers. He found a broken bag of Portland cement on sale at his local store for $3, so didn’t cost him much to try. Whether or not you might like the result is a matter of taste.
I’ve got a technique I call speckle painting that works well. I’ve been meaning to put up a webpage tutorial but haven’t gotten around to it. If you use plaster you won’t need a base coat, but other materials may need a base of white or off-white (sort of a ‘bone’ or ‘eggshell’ color. Don’t paint it gray.)
You’re going to need a couple of shades of brown spray paint, one fairly light and one medium. Avoid the dark chocolate shades. I used Valspar Sagebrush for the lighter shade and Krylon Brown Boots for the darker shade. There are other similar shades out there: khaki; putty; leather saddle; etc.
Then cover the floor of your workshop with newspaper and lay the concrete parts on it. Start with the lighter shade of spray paint and hold it about 3 or 4 feet above the floor and give a few quick bursts. The paint particles will settle onto the parts giving it a speckled look. The change can be subtle so inspect the parts every few bursts. You can always add more, but can’t take any away. Be sure to keep the nozzle clean or it might splatter on your work.
Then give a few bursts of the darker brown. You probably want less of this one than the lighter shade. Freshly poured concrete shouldn’t have much paint. The older the concrete is supposed to be, the more paint you’ll need.
After you have the effect you want, then give it a wash of india ink and isopropyl alcohol. Plaster really soaks this stuff up so you’ll need a thin solution (start with about 1/4 teaspoon ink per 1 pint of alcohol and go from there.) If you’re using plastic or foam you can
You will never please everyone with your concrete color. There are a lot more stones & sand in concrete than cement. The color will vary depending on the type & color of the sand / stone combination. I’ve seen browns, gray & almost white. If you need some concrete patched, no mason will guarantee a perfect match.
I really don’t think you would see any texture in either HO or N gauge. If you take the average texture of concrete & divide it by 87 there is not much there. Just use FLAT paint & if you think you need texture you can stipple it with a soft brush. jerry
I think the weathering after the original color may be the key to good looking older concrete.
For the short section of concrete road I have, I sprinkled some water plug powder over gray paint for my base. Scribed in the block lines and used a little black wash. By no means does it look like old concrete, but I don’t think it looks too new either. If I did a little more with weathering, it could make quite a difference.
May I remind everyone…by dictionary definition, a “model” is a miniature representation of something.
It is NOT an “exact replica” of something.
Concrete varies by : area, mix. blend, strength, era, age, exposure to elements, Etcetera…
In models, it will also depends~ is it applied to wood, plastic, plastruct, what? will determine the appearance of color it has…
SO… you find something that simulates concrete,
if you want REAL concrete, MAKE it out of CONCRETE!!! {But, be sure you have a MRRing table strong enough to hold it!}. BUT, I bet it won’t have the aged look you may be after!
For color i used a mix of Pollyscale Earth and Concrete. Since concrete is not one consistent color, I then spray a light wash of dirt but do not hit the whole piece with a consistent coat. The other thing that worked well, I discovered accidently. I brushed on my India ink and alcohol mix and it ended up too dark in places. I then did a light overspray with my concrete color mix and the toned down affect of the india ink wash really worked well. Again I try to attain subtle inconsistencies in color using the concrete color mix, India ink alcohol wash and thinned dirt.
I mix Floquil Concrete 50/50 with Reefer White and I’ve been spraying 030 styrene sheets and glueing them down with water-based contact cement for roads. If I want something to stand out like K-rail or parking stops I paint them Antique White.
