Hi, I’m just about ready to paint my new dry wall for the layout room. I’m going to use a sky blue color. Can anyone share what brand of paint they use. More imporantly, is it better to use a flat colored sky blue or semi gloss, gloss ect.? Any information will help.
Thanks, Mark
I recommend flat finish. I used Columbia Paint (now part of Sherwin Williams), white base 02-250 WB with the rest of the markings “1/2 CPC 0638, BYK.” It is a light sky blue.
Good luck!
For me I’ve always gotten good results with Sherwin Williams. I’ve tried BORG paint and would up going back to SW just to finish the job. BORG paint is more like colored water. I chose flat to minimise glare off the walls as well.
Consumer Reports recommends Behr. Personally, I use Sherwin Williams products because employees of my company get a 10% discount there.
Just about any commercial brand of paint will do the trick though. The issue is going to be coverage (which you solve by multiple coats) and durability. Durability may not be that much of an issue because your walls won’t be touched very often.
I’d use a semi-gloss sky blue (grab some paint chips and have a blast).
I would favor a flat finish, which won’t form `hot spot’ reflections of light bulbs.
As for specific brand, I’d say go along with the least expensive brand that will provide adequate coverage and dry flat and smooth. Your walls won’t be exposed to heavy adverse wear. In fact, once the layout is in place you probably won’t have any reason to touch them. My own layout scenery is such that there’s very little ‘sky’ above the semi-modeled farther mountains (which are on flats.)
My own preference is for a whitish grey with some blue higher up - but I’m modeling the visual appearance of a muggy, uncomfortably warm day in late summer. When you can squeeze a cup of water out of a handful of air the lower sky is NOT blue!
Chuck (Modeling humid Central Japan in September, 1964)
I used Behr “Ocean Cruise” (550D-5) for my sky (just painted it this month). I used flat latex wall paint rather than the semi-gloss.
I’ll defer to the others on the flat vs. semi-gloss issue, because I have backdrops on a free-standing layout, and I’m not using the walls of the room.
The color gradient that Chuck points out is obvious in most humidity conditions. Unless you’re modeling the desert SW or somewhere in Africa or Mongolia, the sky will be blue at the top, tending towards a grayish white as you near the horizon.
I solve this issue by painting my backdrops with an airbrush on white foam, and gradually applying less paint (so white shows through) as I approach the bottom. You could do the same by gradually mixing additional amounts of white into your paint as you approach the level of your layout.
Finish - For a background/sky paint you will want a flat finish
Color - you need to get something that you like under YOUR lighting. Paint from the same can will look different on your layout than it will on mine, even with the same kinds of lights. Truthfully most, me included, worry too much about get the “perfect” sky color. Find a picture that has some sky in that you think has the right feel. Get a color close to that and you will be happy with it. By the time you do all of the scenery, clouds, mist tress etc the sky will blend nicely.
Brand - Walmart has a nice house brand that is about $9 a gallon that works great. No need to spend $25 on paint for this - get the Walmart brand and and a new piece of rolling stock
ratled
I plan to use a flat finish, inexpensive paint. The walls shouldn’t need a lot of cleaning, unless you have a very dusty or oily environment or someplace that will get brushed by a lot. As for color get something that looks right to you. Get some samples, take them into your layout room and see how they look. Sky color varies day to day, hour to hour, so it is easy to match a close to a “some of the time” color. Using a white, blending up from the bottom looks very nice. Just the blue and white will make a fine sky. You can pratice making clouds on your backdrop, if it is easy to reach, paint over if you don’t like them. If your backdrop isn’t easy to reach, take a 2x4 piece of masonite or plywood and pratice on that. I would recommend undercoating your backdrop, makes a good surface to start on.
Good luck,
Richard
I used a flat Latex paint on the undercoated backdrop. I have ScenicKing continuous panorama around all walls of my 24’x24’ layout. I took a 7"x11" sample section of SceniKing to the paint store and electronically matched the blue color of the top of the paper. The blue top color is fairly uniform on all the photo panorama sections. I used a giant glue stick to glue the sections to the backdrop. Bob 
Flat blue is definitely a good choice. This was done with a leftover “sky blue” color that I had sitting on a shelf for years. The clouds were created with homemade cardstock stencils with rattle cans of white and gray that I’ve also had sitting on the shelf for a long time.
Thanks for everyone’s input. All of your ideas give me some options to consider and I appriciate it.
I painted my layout room blue also but a friend that paints profesionaly gave me a great tip, he said to visit Lowe’s and Home Depot every other day and check the paint that was returned. It took me about a week but I found 4 gallons of blue that was returned because they didnt like the shade, since it was returned the price was $5.00 per gallon. I mixed it all together in a 5 gallon bucket and a very nice shade of blue was the result, my train room in the basement is 44 ft by 33 ft so it used up about all of it with 2 coats. Call me cheap but it worked out nice and for 20.00 I can’t complain. Jim.
One suggestion if I may. Be careful about filling the room with too much blue. I have visited a couple of layout rooms where the sky was was overpowering, and even though it looked quite impressive, the railroad all but disappeared in those rooms. I felt more like was in a planetarium before the show starts, not a train room.
Even a well painted sky that uses all the walls and ceiling can shrink the railroad into nothingness if it is overpowering. I have a dedicated trainroom and was all set to paint the entire room as if I was outside. I realized I was not skilled enough to do the job. It is a painting you are creating, not just painting the walls. I opted to go with the 2’ high backdrop instead and leave the walls alone. The backdrop shows my limitations as an artist and I am glad that shortcoming doesn’t fill my room.[(-D]
Just my[2c]
Brent[C):-)]
I have most of my room painted with a light blue I had left over from painting the bedroom but I did like BATMAN is saying, I only painted about 3 feet up the wall.
I have used Sherwin-Williams, Behr, MAB, Mautz and maybe some off brands with good results. I sold SW for nearly 17 years so I am somewhat biased toward it. I have worked as a painter too. The comment about returned paint was good. At SW we called them mis-tints. We had to be careful marking the cans…Some would get MT written on them. I did not like MT because that is what I used to note the can was eMTpy. While a glossy paint will be more durable I would go with flat for the walls. It will look better and not reflect light. LRV was what noted light reflectance value.It was noted as a percentage.
The comment about painting a back drop and not the walls is a good idea. If you ever move you most likely would have to paint the room over to be more marketable.
Another alternative to painting may be using blue construction foam board as a back drop. The side without printing on it.
Rather than paint the walls of the room, have you considered using masonite for your backdrop? If you ever move and sell the house, it will easier to remove the masonite than repaint the walls. Not many people go for scenic paint schemes on their walls.