I am somewhat of a noob when it comes to this. I am building one of Walthers large Cornerstone Series structures and don’t know which supplies to use. first off, I would like to state I am going to use Soft Pastels (Chalks) for the Weathering along with Floquil Grimmy Black washes for weathering. My main question is which paint to use for the structures. I have tons of Acrylic paints from the hobby store I used on minitures. Should I use this?, or should I use strict solvent based paint? Also, should I use dull coat after I apply the chalk weathering? or will it wash it away? Thanks in advance to all the comments.
I would recommend a regular solvent based primer and then paint with water based hobby acrylics. A dullcote after applying the chalks isn´t a bad idea as it will help molding it together with the rest of the weathering.
This thread applies as much to painting plastic buildings as it does Hydrocal ones:
I paint my plastic structures directly with acyrlic paints from the hobby store artist supply center. I use “acrylic flow medium” to mix in to thin the paint, to keep it from drying out, and to keep it from “globbing” in small areas and globbing out the details.
If you are doing brick, there are several methods, including using red auto primer paint than wite washing over to fillin grout lines and using a rubber eraser to rub off excess whitewash. Go to the “search our community” feature on the right side margin and type in Painting brick or brick sevearl threads and methods will pop up.
I use weathering powders and grimey black and aged concrete for weathering my buildings after I have painted them with teh dry brush technique.
Try searching our commuity for ideas on painting structures for other ideas.
I prefer Floquil paints for airbrushing on structures, and seldom bother with primer. This gives a tough finish with good “tooth” for weathering using chalks/pastels or washes. I also like Floquil for airbrushed weathering, but not for washes, as heavy applications may attack the plastic. Instead, I use Pollyscale for washes and, for the same reason, find it preferable to Floquil for brush-painting on plastic.
You can also use acrylics such as Pollyscale for airbrushing your structures, but it’s more important to either wash the structure thoroughly or prime first with a solvent-based paint such as Floquil. On a properly-prepared surface, Pollyscale is as durable as Floquil.
You can use Dullcote to seal chalk weathering, although it does mute the effect somewhat - experiment to see if you like the way it turns out - you can always apply more weathering if need be.
For the basic color desired (usually red), I just use the rattle-can primer, such as Rustoleum. This must be done LIGHTLY, even in very light layers, so as not to cover up the details. once that is done, you can use whatever method you’d like for weathering. The brewery complex that I recently built is “old” (circa 1910), so I wanted that heavily spalted look (lots of calcification) so I used a heavy (about 3 parts water, to 1 part paint) light grey acrylic wash, then wiped off before drying, but not clean, leaving “mortar” between the bricks as well as the “white” calcium deposits on the faces of the bricks. I came through with some Bragdon’s powders (rust and black), to accent the weathered look. The nice thing about Bragdon’s as opposed to chalk is that it needs no dullcote to seal it. Weathering is fun, and, as i have not completely mastered the art by any means, it takes courage sometimes, especially when you have a lot of $$ invested in a kit, a scratchbuild or a fine piece of rolling equipment. Practice helps too.
I like to use rattle-can sprays, like rust-colored primer, too. But, I do like to vary the colors of my brick buildings. I’ve left a number of them in their original colors, typically light browns or “dirty” reds, and others I’ve painted with acrylics to get a mixture of shades.
This building wall was painted with a Rustoleum “specklked” spray paint from a can:
It’s a fairly thick paint, but it comes out looking just like this. This particular building had a practically featureless surface anyway, so there wasn’t any detail to worry about.
I also like the Rustoleum speckled black paint for roofs. It has a grainy texture, and takes the typical flat styrene roof and makes it look much more realistic.
The quality of rattle cans, especially the tips, has improved so much in the last few years that I find myself using them more and more. The color selection in the earth tone range has also become pretty nice. While I still use an airbrush sometimes I find myself more often than not going to Floquil, Rustoleum, and Krylon spray paint.
I will agree with Hoosier line to some degree and have used Rustolium red oxide primer for brick color in the past with pretty good success but I have now gone strictly airbrush as I feel i have far more control and don’t put as nearly as much material as with a rattle can where you loose too much detail. For me there is a point where you can put on too much paint. I use strictly acrylic paints on structures as I don’t feel they need the durability of a solvent based paint. Once a structure is finished you plant it and for the most part there is stays for ever and a day where rolling stock and locomotives get handled quite often so they require a more durable finish
I guess a lot depends on the surface being painted. Large surfaces such as roads and concrete grain silos without much (or any detail) are particularly well suited for spray cans.
I’ve had good luck replicating aged concrete (silos, turntable pits, etc.) by laying on a base coat of Rustoleum light gray primer followed by a dusting of Rustoleum ‘sandstone’ colored textured paint.
This is one of those questions whose answer is not a “one size fits all”. The previous posters all had good suggestions, and you will find that some methods work better for you as compared to others.
Being old school from wayyyyyy back, I still prefer the bottled Testors or Model Master paints, applied with a brush for MOST of my structure models - but certainly not all.
For rolling stock, with rare exceptions, an airbrush is needed.
Count me as one who uses spray can red primer as a base and then using acryllic hobby paints as the finish coat. I prefer the cheap paints because they tend not to cover as evenly which gives the brick surfaces an uneven appearance which I think is realistic. A also like to experiment mixing different combinations as all my brick buildings don’t look alike. I use white wash for mortar lines and finish with weathering powders. On woodsided buildings, I might add a black wash too. I don’t do this on brick structures because it tends to wipe out the grout lines.
