DURANGO & RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD - AUSTRALIA
SLIMTRACKS NARROW GAUGE WORKSHOPS
PRESENTS
“HOW TO PAINT USING “WASHES” - PLASTER RETAINING WALLS
By Laurie McLean
Photos by the author
We’ve made some plaster stonework,
And it’s holding up our track,
Can’t leave it white unpainted!
Oh, our friends just won’t come back.
So let’s get those paints a workin’
And we’ll colour every stone,
Our friends will love the artwork,
And we’ll never be alone.
The wonderful thing about railroad modeling is the diverse skills that we pick up along the way to
building our great layouts. When good friends share their knowledge & modeling experiences you
hear some terrific methods they use – often things so simple you wonder why you didn’t think of
them first – but that’s the fun of our hobby learning new things along the way.
Now we are going to do some artistic work to make our plaster stone retaining walls we made look
good & blend in with our scenery.
FIG.1
We will be using acrylic tube paints for this – they
are so easy to work with – I love them.
Well, before we start we need to make sure that
the plaster castings we have made from the latex
moulds are COMPLETELY DRY. I use Casting
Plaster but Plaster of Paris is pretty much the
same.
The process of the plaster “going-off” takes time
& trying to paint our castings the next day is definitely not recommended – leave them for a week
in a dry warm place to let them dry thoroughly. I leave mine out in the morning sun, just 3 hours of
the sun actually shining on them is about right for a week. I don’t leave them out when moisture is
about.
Once the plaster has cured completely we can start the painting. No, this is not right the correct
term, we don’t paint them; - we give them several “washes” of diluted acrylic weak paint mixes.
So, whether we call it “washes” or “stains”, it’s the same thing – very weak thinned-out paint.
What colours do we use? That’s a good question. What colours are the natural rocks of the area you
are modeling? What are the existing colours of your scenery?
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DURANGO & RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD - AUSTRALIA
I have read about certain scenery products that are pre-coloured, however, how things look will
greatly depend on your layout lighting – yes YOUR lighting – not the outside real world. You don’t
have natural lighting in your layout room so; you need to think LIGHTER to show up details &
textures so that an amount of “depth” can be created in the scenery.
Lighter – is this bloke mad? Yes, lighter colours make for a much better looking layout especially
the scenery & what’s sitting on it. Go look at photos in magazines the better ones are lighter.
There is nothing worse than seeing a beautifully detailed layout & the constant colour is darkish
gray everywhere. Your eyes strain to see the details & even if the lights were doubled in the room it
still wouldn’t look any better – it’s too dark! - OK, I’ll lighten up on this point now.
If, after we place the “washes” of light colours onto our stonework they dry & may be too light,
then this can be fixed by applying another wash on top of the first. Its colour “build-up” & it’s
controllable by you! All that MUST occur is to let each wash dry BEFORE attempting to place the
next wash on top of it. We can mix the colours of the washes – they don’t have to be exactly the
same, this would look artificial.
Using strong dark colours just doesn’t work in our layout room, under out lighting system. Using
light washes that are built up over several nights working is a good way of not over doing it. We
must allow the drying time in between each coat we apply. If it’s still we then the colour is darker to
look at & placing a second coat would be a mistake – take your time & enjoy the rewards this
brings.
FIG.2 The “sheet” plaster wall.
FIG.3 Under the wood trestle retaining wall.
In the 2 photos above, FIG.2 & 3, you can see the light colours & you can see the detail & textures
& a certain amount of depth created. Note the colours of the rock cliffs behind the locomotive in
figure 3 – the orange & yellow oxides show as well as some browns & some grays. The stones in
the retaining wall match up with the plaster cliffs & rocks – these too were painted using the same
method as the stonework – washes of diluted acrylic paints. Notice on the rocks either side of the
retaining wall, they are slightly grayer being older rocks & weathered over time. Subtle differences
make the colours & the textures blend realistically together. But most importantly they are light not
dark & they can be easily seen.
My room lighting is all fluorescent 4 foot tubes positioned directly above the front edge of the
layout so that the concentration of light is onto the subject with minimal shadows. If you haven’t
done your lighting & kept putting it off you need to do this now so that the overall scenery can be
made to really look good. My old layout had a mixture of lights & in the wrong places – I learnt a
valuable lesson & hopefully got my new layout correct – the photos sure look better & I can see
everything from the front edge to the painted backdrop.
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DURANGO & RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD - AUSTRALIA
Now, got the acrylic paints ready? Have you got a wet rag, the small brushes & the pallet tray for
mixing the paints? We’ll need some water too to dilute the paints as well as a coffee mug to wash
our brushes in from time to time. The wet rag can be used quickly if we want to wipe off the paint
before it soaks into the plaster & can be used to wipe excess from our paint brush as we work.
WHAT COLOURS ARE WE USING?
FIG.4 what colours are we going to use?
Remember, we asked what colours your area you are
copying are or to blend with the existing scenery. For
my layout we will use:
Yellow Oxide, Raw Umber (I love this colour it’s
“rusty” looking), Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, Carbon
Black & of course my favorite colour - white – yes
WHITE. It’s the most important colour we will use
as it creates the best effects. Bold strong colours
straight from the tube are a fatal mistake to use neat;
they are too strong & won’t look realistic. Tone them
down & all of a sudden things look so much more natural.
HOW DO WE MIX THE PAINT ?
How the paints are diluted is not rocket science, we simply use water. 90% water to 10% paint for
the lighter colours & 99% water & 1% paint for the dark colours such as black. Now these figures
are “watery” (pun intended) & are a guide that tends to be a too weak solution but start off VERY
weak & you will quickly determine if the mix needs strengthening with more paint.
In the pallet place about 1/8th of an inch of the first paint (say raw umber) squeezed out from the
tube. You can cut this off at the tube using a knife. Wipe the knife with the wet rag we had ready
after the paint is cut & placed in the pallet bowl.
FIG.4 White paint is always used with colours.
Here’s my pallet with 10 little bowls to mix in. The
raw umber & white paint are being used to paint my
tree trunks – see how it’s been mixed - it’s the same
principal only we are using far less paint & adding
lots of water to dilute. The blue tub is a spray can lid
with water to wash the brushes. A coffee cup is also
used. Let’s put some paints out to see what our
colours are going to look like.
Just a tiny smidgeon of paint now – careful we don’t
put too much out as it will dry & be wasted.
In FIG.5 we have our raw umber & burnt umber, Yellow Oxide, a little black with the white in the
same bowl to lighten it – this will be our gray colour. And of course we can mix any of these
together to make “blends” – experiment a little – we learn by making mistakes – but try it on a piece
of old white plaster to get the feel & technique before making a mistake on the real thing.
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DURANGO & RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD - AUSTRALIA
FIG.5
You can see the white being gently mixed into the raw
sienna & the “watery” mixes of the other colours.
These “washes” of paints soak into the porous plaster
quickly leaving some colour showing on the surface.
In FIG.6 the artwork is starting. Here our first
applications of colours are being placed on random
stones & we will be changing colours often along the
way. Note – it is not necessary to clean the small paint
brush, rather, leave what remains on it & it will blend
with the next colour choice as we work.
This is one technique – painting individual stones
randomly. There are other ways also that may be used.
Getting the colour into the tiny cracks between the
stones is very important to make the stonework look
realistic. To do this it is necessary to get some darker
“washes” of colour into these cracks.
Enter “black wash”. This needs to be heavily diluted
as it is such a strong colour & a little white can help to
tone it down to a dark gray rather than straight black.
FIG.6
FIG.7
The other technique is to place the ‘washes” directly
into the cracks first using a “0” size brush. As can be
seen in FIG.7, the “wash” of black & white is being
carefully “run” into the cracks using the brush in the
direction of the crack so not to touch the stone faces.
Placing the dark shadowed paint into the cracks
gives the stonework some depth & texture.
You can see also that the black wash has been
painted under the stone lip which would be away
from sunlight & in shade.
Continuing on with the stone painting we see how things are progressing. (FIG.8,9 & 10)
FIG.8
FIG.9
FIG.10
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DURANGO & RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD - AUSTRALIA
It’s really easy to do this & lot’s of fun but the most important thing to be careful of is to make the
“washes” VERY weak. If they are too strong the plaster will never lighten & the texture of the
plaster will be lost if too much paint is applied. Go easy & it will turn out nice for you.
FIG.11
Well here we are finished & it looks
reasonably good.
The beauty of using acrylic paints is that the
plaster can be re-stained any time later if the
colour fades over time. The plaster will
remain absorbent to a degree & this allows
“touch-ups” to be done.
I used 5 colours plus white for this & when
the bridge is fitted into the layout along with
the stone abutments they will blend in with
the existing scenery of the layout.
The colours have been worked out to best effect under the layout lighting in my room. Below in
FIG.12 you can see some “dry brushing” of white paint. This adds high-lights to the stones & the
sun fade effect.
FIG.12
In summary – layout lighting plays a major role
in any layout & this is reflected in how
everything will look to the viewer be it trains or
scenery or backdrop. The colours are to be
enjoyed & the lighting dictates how it will look.
Colours are mixed to suit the individual layout
lighting.
Funny – it’s not how good the artwork is – it’s
how good the lighting & the colour shades that
will work with the lighting are. Even though this
is mini article is about painting if the paint can’t
be appreciated it’s not going to be any good –
the lighting plays the important part here.
Hmmm….makes for some thought heh?
Hope this help you.
Your friend down-under,
Laurie
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