hello everyone thanks for all the ideas for my work bench…lol one thing i have been working on is comming up with good easy ways to weather my buildings… i have a modernized older town with buildings like merchant’s row buildings from walther…i want to make the look realy but not too old. also how do i go about making the look like the a finnish inside without all the detail?? i was thinking of maybe making the windows dark and paint on blinds or something and ideas???
Here’s a clinic I did a couple months ago, covers everything from assembly, painting, and gives some weathering ideas… There’s a couple more photos to be added later on but it;ll give you my take on the subject…
Mortar washes are great for brick buildings. Weathering chalks look good. You can water down cheap craft paint and make washes out of them(dirty, rusty colors). Look at real buildings where dirt drips down from window sills and rust streaks down from metal pipes and fire escapes. Reality can be a great teacher.
india ink and alcohol make great washes for light colored buildings…poly-s white and water with a couple of drops of liquid dish soap make great washes for darker buildings…chuck
I have been putting together some plastic structure kits and have tried my hand at weathering them to reduce the shine and odd ball colors used by the manufacturer. For instance, a yellow roof on a house?? Obviously, I had to change that around.
At any rate, I would like to know just a couple of things to help this newbie. First, can somebody accurately define a “wash?” I am using acrylic paints and my idea of a wash is simply to water down the paint that comes out of the bottle in my paint tray. I then apply the thinned paint to the building to tone down the shine and give it some “age.”
Right now, I am working on a dockside building that is mostly laser cut wood. I want to “wash” the structure in a gray-blue to refelct the harshness of the sea and to match what is “on the package.” I’m still trying to figure out how to put this wooden model together with aboslutley no instructions.
Also, does a wash involve isopropyl alcohol? If not, when is this substance used in RR modeling?
A “wash” is basically any very thinned-down paint. I add acrylic paints to water for most of my washes. For wood, like those laser-cut craftsman kits, I use a few drops of India Ink in isopropyl alcohol. I’ve tried the India Ink in water, but I think using alcohol as the base just works better.
Building interiors are a subject near and dear to my heart. On my layout, many structures are right in front. I’ve sought out buildings with large windows so that the interior detailing can be seen. This is one of my favorites, the City Classics “West End Market.” It’s a simple kit with a design which would be at home in many layouts.
A look inside reveals the simplicity of the detailing. The floor, walls and even the grocery shelves were all downloaded from the Web, sized appropriatetly and printed on card stock on my computer. I added a simple lamp and a few Preiser figures:
I’ve also done some interior detailing on buildings with small, multi-pane windows. After putting in walls, furniture, figures and lighting, I discovered that it was almost impossible to see any of the details. So, be aware that this kind of effort may not be warranted unless the windows are big enough to see through.
When it comes to the mortar lines I use a ‘Country Gray’ acrylic paint that I get in the crafts section at Wal-Mart. I just squeeze a little onto my finger then rub it into the mortar lines than buff it off with a folded paper towel. The paint on the surface is buffed away while the paint in the mortar lines stays behind.
The web-hosting company you’re using has been flagged as distributing viruses and malware (whether knowingly or otherwise). Each one of your pages, on modern browsers throws up a malware warning when I attempt to access it-- I’m using Firefox 3.something. And when I went to your index page, from the last page of your painting article, the site did actually attempt to infect my computer with something, though my virus software caught it and removed it, no harm done.
You might want to consider getting a new hosting company and re-building your site there. Note, if you do, I would not recommend cutting-n-pasting or copying over the old files as they may have links or embedded script (javascript) code that activates the malware/virus attack. But rather simply look at the one and re-type it into the other and upload your photos again. If its your domain you have the right to set it up with any reputable web-hosting provider. You shouldn’t have to pay any kind of fees to your old provider to release it though.
Actually, I didn’t “model” that. The sidewalk is made of white styrene, painted with gray acrylic paint. The sidewalk “cracks” are drawn on with a number 2 pencil. In the course of construction, the paint got scratched a bit, showing the white styrene through it. In the photo, it looks like scraps of paper. But, when you look at it for real, it just looks like scratched paint, so I’ve touched it up since the photo.
Brain, some of my thoughts on realistically weathering urban structures.
The most basic approach is applying multiple coats of very thin washes. Allow each wash to dry thoroughly and then carefully evaluate the appearance before adding any further coats. The resulting appearance of washes alters in look and intensity between newly applied and dry. Diluted India ink washes are good for giving an impression of accumulated grime, while diluted paints will provide “age” to the underlying paint/building color. The two approaches may be used in combination - with the paint washes applied first. Above all, work slowly and carefully, plus evaluate your results in the same lighting as in your layout room. And remember that more weathering can always be added…but it’s awfully tough to undo too much weathering.
Above all, try to avoid falling into the trap of overweathering structures, or heavily weathering all your buildings (there should be a range of aging, building to building), as this results in a caricaturish impression, not one of honest realism. I’m afraid that most model railroaders today tend to drastically overdue their weathering techniques, whether it be on buildings, locomotives, or rollingstock, resulting in scenes that look more post apocalyptic than realistic.
Likewise, generally avoid the use of nail holes on a great many wooden layout structures. I see this all the time now and it really detracts from the believability of the scene. This detail, currently very much in vogue among scratchbuilders, is pure caricature, as buildings exhibiting same are extremely rare in the real world. Another feature far too often overdone are mortar lines. Unless the building is supposed to be relatively new, or at least recently re-pointed, mortar lines tend to be rather subtle in contrast to the surrounding brick when viewed from a distance. In many cases, with age the brick&
Jwhitten, there was an article written within the last 2 years in Model Railroader about how to model “trash”; old newspapers blowing in the street, etc. I don’t recall which issue, but a search on their index might pull it up.
Heh, a shame 'cause they look good in the photo! But your overall model is really good. I have made a note of your interior techniques and plan to use them in the near future!
Yes, I seem to recall it-- the “newspapers” were actually provided by George Sellios from one of his FSM models, available for “personal use only”… but nicely done.
That-- trash and such-- is something I go back and forth on in my head about modeling. On the one hand there’s “Realism” (with the capital ‘R’) which is the goal of modeling something ‘believable’, and yet on the other head there’s “Idealized Realism”, which is not the same place and is different for each of us, which is the goal of modeling something that captures our imaginations or takes us to a “place” we remember or else would like to be.
Here’s some shots I took of the back and front of some buildings. Someone was needing a idea for the “merchant row”. The front shots were taken from the inside of the car. Its a busy street, and I was already holding people up. So…Those don’t look as good [:-^].
All of our model structures get a think film of dust on them. Sometimes we dust or vacuum them off. Is there a way to use this dust to our advantage and add to the weathering process (aside from simply leaving it on there)? I was thinking occasionally spraying a misty “rain” of water on the layout, having it dry, resulting in the dried dust “streaking” down to show signs of weathering, especially on roofs. Any comments on this idea?
Well you could but the problem is the scale of the dust. You see, the dust that accumulates on the layout is 1:1 scale dust and what you need is 1:87.1 scale dust. Full scale dust looks like boulders and tree logs to people really knowledgeable about dust. You might be able to get some people to go along with you, but you’ll never get the real “dust experts” to buy it.
BTW, I just did some quick checking around and found several sources for you… if you follow the link below you’ll find several HO scale dust collectors. I’m sure you’ll find them suitable for your purposes.
