I have found that even cheap plastic structures can look good if they are weathered. If you look around the railroad yard you quickly notice that most structures are pretty dirty. Don't let your model buildings stand out with that "plastic" look. The more weathering and details you add the better. Ideally the visitor to your layout should be rewarded for letting his eyes linger by discovering smaller and smaller details.
With a little effort, plastic brick walls can be made to look very realistic. There are several good ways to achieve a prototypical look, depending on how much effort you want to put into the project.
I am a great believer of obtaining the best effect possible with a minimum time investment. The best way to easily make your brickwork prototypical is to put mortar lines into your brick. To do this you basically just paint the brick the desired shade, then flow a white liquid into the cracks. Once it dries you wipe off the raised surface of the brick, seal it with Dullcote, and you're done.
Some people use diluted white paint for this, however I have had much better luck with a commercial product named "Roberts' Brick Mortar Formula". It's easy to use, works well, and lasts a long time. The picture at right shows some of the detail on a plastic brick building I used this product on.
If you want to make your building look a little more used and abused, follow the mortaring with a wash of India ink. Spray on a mixture of about 1 teaspoon to 1 pint of alcohol using a hand-pump spray bottle. Spray it liberally, allowing it to settle down into all the cracks and crevices. After the building dries lightly dry-brush the brick surface with rust colored paint.
Don't sweat the small stuff!
One of the nice things about making plastic brick look prototypical is that you really don't have to be all that careful. Real brick buildings frequently have areas where the mortar lines are so dark they can not be easily seen, and other areas where they stand out. Often repairs and changes are done over time with bricks of different colors. If some of your mortar mix leaves come chalky residue it's not a problem, it's prototypical.
One technique that has worked well for me concerns mortar lines.
Having become frustrated with "washes" of white paint that I never could
get to create strong mortar lines, I chanced upon a solution. I now use
a white vinyl spackling compound available at most hardware stores, and
the results are great every time. Just press it into the grooves by
finger after the building is painted, then wipe away the excess and let
dry.
Contributed by: Wade Venden
This is just a few organized notes on how to paint rust onto models with surfaces representing metal. It will work on boxcars, hoppers, any rolling stock, structures, etc. I have used the example of a plastic Mine kit sheathed in corrugated steel sheets for most of the examples. A few others have been thrown in as well. Hope you find it helpful.
Age and weathering factor heavily into how much rust to apply. New buildings and railcars will have less rust and brighter paint. Older ones will be moderately rusty. Decrepit models? Well, go to town. In this example we'll talk about a mine kit, moderately old. The older the mine the more rust you'll see. Operations like this used corrugated metal as sheathing because all they cared about was keeping the machinery inside dry - mostly dry. Generally panels were left to age and rust without a care, and only replaced (if ever) when a leak threatened a valuable piece of machinery inside.
Build up rust on horizontal or close to horizontal surfaces more than on vertical surfaces, because the rainwater tends to stay on them longer. Corrugated panels tend to rust vertically from the drip edges up, and along edges.
One method I love to use, and find the most effective in representing rust is to paint the entire model a rust color. Spray on various shades of brown/orange/red colors, varied from place to place. Wait for it to dry. Then dab on rubber cement with a semi-fine brush along edges and spots where you want the rust to show through the most. Be careful, at this stage a little less is more later. Then paint the model in the actual color it supposed to be painted. Be sure to apply any decals or painted-on signs beforethe next step. Paint all trim as well. A general dusting for weathering can be made at this time also. For our mine lets assume a grey / metal color? Anyway, after the grey coat dries, use a x-acto knife to pick off the rubber cement (Or a pencil eraser works nicely too, just keep the motion the same as the water runoff path) to reveal the rusty edges and spots underneath. This if a great effect and is very realistic. Practice with the rubber cement and brush will yield very impressive results.
But wait, we're not through yet! Now, using a q-tip or fine brush that is lightly damp with thinner, touch the swab to the rusty paint and pull a streak down from the rusty spot, using less pressure as your brush / swab falls down the side of the model. What this will do is simulate the streaks of rust that appear below rusty areas, as the rust stains the panels below. You can also do this sparingly in the upward direction on corrugated metal, but do so less often and with lighter pressure. This looks really sharp, but be careful not to overdo it! Practice on something else first to learn no to pull off too much rust paint from the model. If you do - its no biggie. Just touch up the rusty area with a fine brush and thin rust-color paint (it ain't supposed to look smooth, right?)
Also, the pencil eraser can be used to 'wear down' the paint on most corrugated panels, getting them to show a wee bit of rust starting up. Just draw the eraser vertically down the panels until a bit of the gray is worn off, just starting to show the rust color underneath. Again, a little less is more here. This can also be done on railcar models to 'dull' the paint and even show some rusty patina on a steel panel. Very convincing on ribbed-sided hopper or box cars, where you don't want to remove the paint around the ribs anyway.
If there are any exposed boltheads, or rivets that might show signs of scraped paint, these should be touched up with rust and streaked down. Very sparingly on the rivets! (This method works well on grain elevators and coaling towers too).
To really contrast against the rusty panels on our mine, mask off and paint a few metal panels in the fresh gray color. then weather them very lightly to simulate repaired panels put in place not too long ago. This really lends a prototypical appearance to an active building.
Another fun thing to do is to draw a razor blade along the side of a boxcar where the door might scrape the paint horizontally as it is opened and closed. A defined scrape mark or marks, highlighted with a few light rust streaks vertically, can really look nice. Also run light streaks of rust down from ladder joints, the door guides, anyplace where rainwater would collect and pool.
Most weathering should be done before the rusting shown here, as the rust stains tend to be new with each rainstorm. This should be the last step before sealing your model with a dull clear coat.
I hope you have fun trying out these techniques!
Craig Bisgeier
Copyright Craig Bisgeier cbisgeier@juno.com (Used with authors permission)
(Craig's home page at The Housatonic RR has some excellent layout design references. It is well worth the trip.)
This effect looks great on old metal bridges and trestles, or anywhere else where a painted metal structure is showing a need for maintenance.
- Cover structure with base coat of rust color. Use (rail brown for old rust, as rust for newer deterioration. I haven't tried this, but a mottling of the two seems like it might work out well. Whichever color you use, allow it to vary in places. Allow this coat to dry.
- Mist the assembled structure with water
- Spray with lacquer based top color. This has to be lacquer because water based paints will mix with the water.
- When half to 2/3 done spray more water on structure, then finish painting.
- Spray more water on structure and set aside to dry.
- Finish with grimy black weathering in a few places, along with drybrushed rust and grime colors
- Add real rust by painting with rust color and sprinkle with fine rust (optional)
- For bridges, don’t forget to brush rust and grime on the bridge abutments, usually streaking down from the bridge feet.
Masking tape or fine grained sandpaper (150 grit works well for N scale) painted black makes realistic tarpaper roofing. Start at the eaves and work upward. Apply each length of tape to slightly overlap the preceding one.
Black electrical tape is supposed to work also, although I think that it looks too "slick". However this may be useful if you are modeling a rainy scene.
Yes, track is a structure too. Think about it, on most layouts the track is the single most dominating man-made feature. Paying some attention towards making your track look realistic pay off big dividends on making your whole scene look good. My basic technique is as follows:
- Start with the ties. Chip and split a few tie ends with a hobby knife.
- Prime the track with Polly S Roof Brown.
- Paint the sides of the rails with a mixture of equal parts of Polly S Rust and Roof Brown.
- Next heavily dry-brush the tie tops with a mixture of two parts Polly S Earth to one part Reefer White.
- After this dries, brush random ties with black India Ink relief wash, and hit a few others with Flo-Stain Oak and Driftwood.
- After the paint dries, clean the rail tops and inside edges with a cloth dampened with thinner.
- Finish up with a Brite-Boy track cleaner or other mild abrasive.
The appearance of wood grain in the surface is easily simulated by rubbing a piece of coarse sandpaper over the styrene in the direction of the grooves. This is easier to do when the styrene is still in a large sheet. By wiggling the sandpaper slightly, a surprisingly realistic effect can be achieved. A light rub with 400 grit finishing paper will remove any fuzz.
Windows on houses look pretty vacant without some kind of curtains. I use the insides of various business envelopes that come in the mail, the type that are designed to make it hard to see through. They come in a wide variety of patterns, and the price is right.
An interesting window treatment is to use pictures of real windows a coverings. What you do is go out at night and take pictures of windows with slide film. Photograph as many different types of windows as your like; residences, shops, factories, etc. You will probably need a tripod as exposure times will be very long. After the slides are developed just mount them to the backs of your model windows. They look OK just that way, but turn a light on inside the model structure and they look fantastic.
Stained glass windows are frequently seen on churches, and glass company windows. They are also frequently seen on up-scale homes, in the past as well as present. My home town has many turn of the century residences that sport extensive stained glass work. Adding a few such windows on your layout can make a structure really stand out. They can look excellent on a structure that is lighted from within.
Begin by putting a small glob of white glue on a scrap piece of paper. Take a clean straight pin or needle and dab it into the glue. Don't get too much glue on the point Squiggle random lines of glue (as thin as you can) onto the acetate window piece with the pin. When you are finished, the "glass" will look something like a child's scribble drawing outline. Let the glue dry. Then take a very small (000 or 0000) pointed paintbrush and dip it into Polly Scale grimy black. Carefully go over all of the glue lines with the paint. When the Polly Scale dries, paint the enclosed areas with various shades of glass stain and let it dry thoroughly.
This inexpensive stain comes in small bottles and is available in many colors. It does not really harm clear plastics; it just gives them a translucent, frosted look. Acetate, however, remains transparent. Glass stain is sold by art supply stores and some office supply stores. The brand I've been using is made by Cunningham. When you install your stained glass windows and place lights behind them, you'll think Tiffany made them. The glue and black paint outlines give them the leaded look. If you have windows with small multipanes, you can give them a checkerboard stain, eliminating the need for painting outlines. Also, you can make your own "glass" with Micro Krystal-Kleer if your panes are small. Just paint the glass stain onto the dried Krystal-Kleer on the inside. It looks great.
I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like a very interesting way to scratch build a structure. Go to a photography store and purchase some double-side mounting board. This is very light card stock that has adhesive applied to both sides, covered by protective paper. Once you have cut your walls out of this material peel off the protective covering on the side that will be the outside, and apply some covering material. This could be paper brick, Campbell's corrugated foil material, or something else along those lines. Once this is done trim out the excess, and around the windows and doors, and you have a wall. Depending on the size of the structure you will probably have to stick some stripwood on the back, as the basic material is not very stiff.
This technique may also show some promise for mounting digital photographs of buildings, signs, etc. If you have the equipment, all you should need to do is to print out the picture in the scale appropriate on your color printer. Then, just apply it to the mounting board and you have a very detailed item to add to your layout.