Paint Half-Off the Car--How Do You Do It???
Brian74777
Yes, it's true, after years of styrene and plaster modeling, I've finally
succumbed to making models of wood things out of wood...
This is probably one of those newbie questions, but can any of you
experienced wood modelers tell me how you get the effect of an old wooden
car (or anything for that matter), that has been out in the elements so
long that much of the original paint is gone, leaving weathered wood
beneath?
I'm building a model of a well-weathered HOn3 C&S gondola and would
appreciate any suggestions. I am comfortable with Floquil, Accuflex,
PolyScale, PolyS and Testors paints, have (and use) an airbrush, and have
weathered wood with both Weather-it and stains.
Thanks in advance,
Brian M
"If there were only one truth, it would be impossible to paint a hundred
canvasses
on a single theme"--Picasso
DougTblood
The millitary modeler trick is to use rubber cement and paint over that
and remove it after the paint dries....
I would try it on a test model first ( in other words I'm not implying any
warranty <G>). And when you do it for real, weather the wood first,
apply rubber cement, and paint.....
Good Luck!
DougT
Ayer MA
Adam Calvert
In <4t7o97$m...@newsbf02.news.aol.com> dougt...@aol.com (DougTblood)
writes:
by Micro Scale(I think). It was a thick blue liquid that you would
brush on and then let dry, paint over and then peel it off.
Mike Barnes
Hi Brian,
If a thousand modelers respond, you'll prolly get a thousand different
answers <g>. My favorite is to:
A: Weather the wood using Weather-It, etc. as tho the wood had been
outside without any paint on it - for something 'in the outdoors for
ages' I weather it pretty dark. You'll hafta experiment until you get
the shade of grey that suits you - I'd think C&S would weather to a light
grey, whereas something in the northwest is a dark grey & has more brown,
etc.
B: Apply a *very* thinned "stain" of the color you're using - hit some
boards a 2nd time, a few boards a 3rd time, etc.
C: Follow-up with pastels (where wear would occur, dirt would collect,
etc.) when the model is assembled. Sometimes I'll use an emery (sp?)
board and scrape the pastel's "shavings" into rubbing alcohol and 'paint'
it on the model. FWIW, I don't use a 'fixative' after the pastels on
wood.
The result will be an evenly-worn, "aged" look; if you're after the
"aged, with peeling paint" look, you might add steps between "B" and "C"
where you put drops of rubber cement on the surface, paint the model,
then pick-off the drops - exposing the "weathered" surface below. I
haven't tried this, as my wooden models (thus far) are of either decrepit
or somewhat newly painted structures & rolling stock, etc. I'm sure
thare's somebody here that's used that technique...
Mike
Matt Conrad
My favorite trick with wood is to stain it with felt-tip markers. Use
good, artist's markers, which come in a multitude of colors. Only use
paint for things that would be metal (typing paper or index cards
painted with Testors Rust looks exactly like old, corroded metal
plates).
You can use the pointy end for fine detail work (like chipped paint) and
the fat end for covering whole boards at once.
You could try weathering the wood, then putting some kind of resist on
to simulate flaking paint. Rubber cement seems to me like it'd be too
thick for the fine paint flakes that would be necessary to look
realistic. Liquid wax, like what's used in furniture refinishing, might
work better. You could apply that with a fine brush.
--
-Matt Conrad, Artist, J.M.Conrad Co., jmco...@InfoAve.net
Providing fine art and Mac software for train nuts like myself.
http://web.InfoAve.net/~jmconrad/
The gelding's name is "No Steam."
Tim O'Connor
jmco...@InfoAve.net (Matt Conrad) wrote:
> Rubber cement seems to me like it'd be too thick for the fine paint flakes
> that would be necessary to look realistic.
I think what people meant is to use rubber cement as a mask! After painting,
the rubber cement is removed leaving the base color visible as patches. This
technique also works with MicroMask as someone else mentioned. Another easy
technique is just to dry brush with "Q tips", or use artist pencils (excellent
for highlighting individual boards, rivets, or making a dark trace like for
the outline of a reefer door). I also dry brush/Q tip with color pigments (I
think the brand is Rainbow) -- these adhere much better than chalk does and
are incredibly cheap (about $2 a pound, and a pound will last you 90 years).
AML
tra...@centuryinter.net (Shane Lambert) wrote:
>Try this: paint the car with the base color (like a rust). Then,
>before painting the final color, spray the car with a mist of water
>and paint it while wet. You will then see the base color wherever a
>drop of water was. This simulates a peeling and rusty car really nice.
>Also works great on bridges, metal buildings, etc.
????? Interesting approach. Never thought of that. Great suggestion, I'll
have to try it.
Brian74777
Dear Shane,
In your reply to a previous post, you wrote:
>Try this: paint the car with the base color (like a rust). Then,
>before painting the final color, spray the car with a mist of water
>and paint it while wet. You will then see the base color wherever a
>drop of water was. This simulates a peeling and rusty car really nice.
>Also works great on bridges, metal buildings, etc.
Will this work on wood? I usually weather with Weather-It, which is more
of a chemical treatment than a paint. The surface is still pretty porous
and I'm wondering if the same technique would work?
However, I think the idea sounds interesting for my styrene and metal
models!
Thanks!
Brian M.
"If there were only one truth, it would be impossible to paint a hundred
canvases
Shane Lambert
>I think what people meant is to use rubber cement as a mask! After painting,
>the rubber cement is removed leaving the base color visible as patches. This
>technique also works with MicroMask as someone else mentioned. Another easy
>technique is just to dry brush with "Q tips", or use artist pencils (excellent
>for highlighting individual boards, rivets, or making a dark trace like for
>the outline of a reefer door). I also dry brush/Q tip with color pigments (I
>think the brand is Rainbow) -- these adhere much better than chalk does and
>are incredibly cheap (about $2 a pound, and a pound will last you 90 years).
Try this: paint the car with the base color (like a rust). Then,
before painting the final color, spray the car with a mist of water
and paint it while wet. You will then see the base color wherever a
drop of water was. This simulates a peeling and rusty car really nice.
Also works great on bridges, metal buildings, etc.
Shane.
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Shane Lambert
am...@acpub.duke.edu (AML) wrote:
>>Try this: paint the car with the base color (like a rust). Then,
>>before painting the final color, spray the car with a mist of water
>>and paint it while wet. You will then see the base color wherever a
>>drop of water was. This simulates a peeling and rusty car really nice.
>>Also works great on bridges, metal buildings, etc.
>have to try it.
I can't remember where I read about that, but it was a few years back.
This technique has worked real well for me, but it took a while to
learn the best way of doing it. It's all a matter of getting the right
amount of water on the model before spraying.
Shane.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: The Model Railroaders Home Page has a new URL:
http://www.nethosting.com/~mrhp
Shane Lambert, Conductor of The Model Railroaders Home Page
E-Mail: mr...@nethosting.com
Phone.: (608) 782-3496
Check out The Model Railroaders Home Page at http://www.nethosting.com/~mrhp
Stanley J. Row
>
>I can't remember where I read about that, but it was a few years back.
>This technique has worked real well for me, but it took a while to
>learn the best way of doing it. It's all a matter of getting the right
>amount of water on the model before spraying.
>
>Shane.
Does this technique still work with the latex based paints?
JR
Andy Harman
tra...@centuryinter.net (Shane Lambert) wrote:
>Try this: paint the car with the base color (like a rust). Then,
>before painting the final color, spray the car with a mist of water
>and paint it while wet. You will then see the base color wherever a
>drop of water was. This simulates a peeling and rusty car really nice.
>Also works great on bridges, metal buildings, etc.
Interesting technique and one I never thought of - I know the
undesired effects a drop of water can have when you DONT want that
effect <g>.
I modeled a heavily peeling RPO car some years ago and while it didn't
look exactly like the prototype, it sure looked nasty enough.
Prototype was a B&O heavyweight RPO car that had seen years of MofW
service, then stored and became a pigeon coop. Its last actual coat
of paint had been aluminum silver but this was peeling all over the
place revealing B&O blue, gray, green and black and oxide primer. I
shot the car first with Floquil tuscan red from a spray can, then
while it was still tacky shot it with Floquil grimy black, and then
again with Testors silver. When the silver was barely dry and still
tacky, I layed strips of 2" wide masking tape right on it and peeled
it off, leaving a mottled pattern of silver, black, and reddish-brown
gook. I probably could not get the same effect again if I tried but
it did work out pretty well on this car. One of the problems of
modeling peeling paint that actually looks right is that in order for
it to look like peeling paint, it has to *be* peeling paint... which
means through handling, transport, and just plain time, it will
eventually peel off and the effect will be lost.
Sure was fun though, for a two-evening project - always gets a lot of
attention at the shows (especially from members of the club that owns
the prototype). In fact, the prototype is the exact same car as
Rivarossi's 70' RPO so the model is indeed accurate <g>.
Andy
Matt Conrad
Tim O'Connor <toco...@bbn.com> wrote:
> jmco...@InfoAve.net (Matt Conrad) wrote:
>
> > Rubber cement seems to me like it'd be too thick for the fine paint flakes
> > that would be necessary to look realistic.
>
> I think what people meant is to use rubber cement as a mask! After painting,
> the rubber cement is removed leaving the base color visible as patches. This
My apologies if I didn't put that as clearly as I could have. What I
meant was, because rubber cement is so thick it would seem to me that it
would be difficult to get drops of it that are small enough to make
realistic paint flakes - meaning small paint flakes.
Another problem with this masking technique is that getting the rubber
cement or whatever off of fragile models, such as balsa or cardstock,
can be difficult. These are the reasons I don't use that technique for
"old" paint.
Boone Morrison
You might try the technique recently described by Jack Burgess in RMC
wherein he used a Pasche (spelling?) "air eraser" to "weather" a
building. Seems the same technique would work on a car or any other
painted surface. Seems he put on the base coat, let it dry well and then
the second color. After that was dry he "sand blasted" through the first,
unevenly of course, to produce a weathered finish. I have tried it and it
is fantastic. Naturally you have to use this "mini sand blaster" in a
well vented space. Good luck, Boone Morrison
Brian74777
Dear Boone,
You wrote:
> You might try the technique recently described by Jack Burgess in RMC
>wherein he used a Pasche (spelling?) "air eraser" to "weather" a
>building.
I find this interesting--what better way to model paint degradation than
to mimic the process! I did check a catalog and the air eraser he used
listed for around $60 US. I'm still looking to borrow one before the
purchase. Anyone else tried it??