Making it look good.

Will_annand

Active Member
About 2/3rds of my layout is now blue foam. About 4400 square inches.
Since I am not modeling Kentucky and there is no "blue grass" up in Canada, I have a question.

I have a couple of small (2 oz.) bottles of Delta Ceramcoat "Tan" paint.

I know I can thin the paint with water, but how much water should I realistically use?
 

Will_annand

Active Member
Thanks Jim, I will give that a try. I will put the whole bottle into a dish and then fill the bottle with water and mix it in. I just want something better than foam blue. LOL

The little bottles are $1.00 at a local store so it will not break the bank if I have to get more.
 

spitfire

Active Member
Why do you have to thin it at all? Is this a special kind of paint?

Personally, I would stock up on extra bottles now, since you never know when you'll need to do a touch-up or an addition. It would be frustrating to discover that there are none left just when you need them.

For my earth colour, I had a quart of latex paint mixed up for me. It was more than I thought I needed at the time, but now it's going to come in very handy. And guess what? The hardware store I got it at is out of business! :cry: :cry:

Val
 

Will_annand

Active Member
Val, it is just the little bottles at Dollarama.
"Delta Ceramcoat - America's Favorite Acrylic Paint™"



I just want a thin coat over the foam to make it look better right now. I will be scenicing it better later. I just thought if I dilutted it, it would go farther.

Next week, I will be stopping in at the local Home Builders center to see what "wrong mixes" they have. If I can find a quart or two of "earth" tone, I will pick it up cheap.
 

Attachments

  • CMC3bottles.jpg
    CMC3bottles.jpg
    3.4 KB · Views: 237
C

Catt

Cheer up Will,both my Nscale and HOn30 layouts were PINK! styrofoam.

The N scale layout has been painted for about a year now. I just painted the HOn30 layout while we were in chat the other night.

I have a suggestion for you if you should decide to get some paint mixed to cover the foam.Get some of the dirt from where your railroad had trackage.Glue this to a piece of cardstock(doesn't need to be a big piece)Let the dirt and glue dry throughly then take said piece to the paint store and have them match the colour.

The reason for all this is your base paint and your dirt will match and help hide any little spots that you might miss with the ground cover.
 
I got some paint that approached the color of local dirt, painted it on the foam and while wet, sifted on the real dirt. On rocky cliffs, I used a gray paint and sifted on the dirt. In steep areas where the dirt prototypically wouldn't stick, the illusion of rocks was created.

Those little bottles, while cheap, don't go far as landscape paint, but I like to use that and the Folk Art brand paint for all my wood structures.

Wayne
 

Matthyro

Will always be re-membered
It's cheaper in the long run to buy a gallon of latex flat paint which will last you forever. A quart size would be better but paint stores here charge almost as much for a quart as they charge for a gallon (here it is actually around 3.4 litres) I use those little bottles of paint for structures.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Hi Will,

I would second (third... ;) ) the option of getting a "mis-tint" at Home Depot or something like that. They may even tint it further as long as you are not more specific than "dirt colour please". It is very easy to make brown out of just about any colour...! I think if you thin those craft paints too much, they may not stick to the foam...

Andrew
 

Will_annand

Active Member
Thanks guys, after thinking it through some more, I will leave the small bottles for when I start the structures.

I will check out the Home Building Centre near me.
Andrew, I always find Home Depot more expensive than Home Building Centre (part of Home Hardware). The only bargains at Home Depot seem to be the "loss leaders" the use in their flyers to get you in the door. Plus the fact that Home Depot is in Bracebridge, 35KM down Hwy 11.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
I found that the acryllic craft paint doesn't make a perfect bond with the foam. I painted my station platforms and put the people down with WS accent glue (the stuff like rubber cement). People that got knocked over took the paint with them.
I managed to paint a lot of my grassy areas with leftover paint from our living room.
Don't worry about the colour matching -- Mother Nature doesn't.
 
Top