My personal preference in rattle-can paint is Krylon. After that, Rustoleum. For stone or concrete walls, get a primer and it will take weathering very well.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
While many "rattle can" brands aren't ground very fine for good model paint, they work GREAT on scenery. You can cover a lot of area at only a modest cost. For concrete, my suggestion is to look at some of the primer gray colors. Some might be a bit dark, but look around. Primer has the advantage of drying to a flat (lusterless) finish in most cases. Suggestion: look at some concrete retaining walls if you can. Look at the color(s) you want to simulate. With a little practice you might be able to spray a coat of gray and follow up with light swatches of light gray or white and perhaps a tan/brown to get the effect of concrete that has aged. Practice on some cardboard or something you don't care about before you try that on your project. The extra colors should be done in light passes from a little further away than your base coat - you don't want spots and stripes, but a light fading between colors. By the way, I don't remember the brand but Wal Mart carries a brand of "camouflage" spray paint. They aren't very expensive and are good for scenery because they dry dead flat.
My personal choice for concrete spraypaint is Testors "Flat Light Aircrat Gray."
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
I prefer a slightly tan shade for concrete. i have used Tamiya rattle can TS-68 "Wooden Deck Tan" as well as Krylon Camouflage rattle can 8141 Khaki. In both cases the color of the cap is impressively close to the color you get. (I am aware that Tamiya is more a hobby or craft shop paint not a hardware store paint).
For a gray concrete look I have used Tamiya AS-16 Light Gray (ASAF).
Actually for most of my concrete streets I have used both tan and gray -- holding a rattle can in each hand and spraying alternatively and then at the same time for a varied look that I find quite realistic. I do not have a pic I can post but you can see a pic here (go to page 4)
http://www.mwr-nmra.org/region/waybill/waybill20093fall.pdf
and here in my Frugal Modeler column:
http://www.mwr-nmra.org/region/waybill/waybill20102summer.pdf
Dave Nelson
I agree with Dave. Concrete tends to be more tan than gray. Go to the link below and scroll down to the sixth post where I describe a technique that works well.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/228726.aspx
Steve S
dschroeder83Found a rustoleum "textured" paint color "sand" at Menards tonight. Anyone tried the textured stuff?
I have not tried the product you mentioned. The following is how I would do what your wanting to do: First of all I don't do much spray painting. I think it isn't needed. Since my closest hobby shop is close to 90 miles away, I use locally available Acrylic paints: Delta Ceramcoat is a common Acrylic available at most craft, Dime and department stores. It's fairly inexpensive and if capped properly seems to last for decades. I would use gray and tan paint mixed together to get a grayish tan color for concrete and adjust the mixture until I get what I want and depending upon the darkness of the gray may even add some white to the mix. I mix my paints in an old freight car kit box. Then I would brush my paint onto the concrete surface. No toxic over spray, no accumulation of unused cans of spray paint, now fussing with clogged nozzles and good looking finsh to the parts I'm painting.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
I've used both their "textured" and "textured multi-color" paints. Both work pretty well. The textured came out like this:
What I like about it is the slightly rough surface. This breaks up those "specular" reflections where you get an almost mirror-like light bounce off the surface.
The textured multicolor paint has specks in it. This is a theater side wall:
And this is some stone work:
The multi-color paints have a lot more texture to them. For the stone work, I used an India Ink wash to highlight the details of the Hydrocal casting. I also like Rustoleum's multi-color black spray, which is great for roofs.
With either of these, be careful to clean out the spray head by holding the can upside-down and spraying into the air for a second or two to clear the head. Even so, you may find it blocked and have to clear it out.
I've used Krylon Natural Stone Textured Finish as a base to get a concrete "feel" to the model before adding the final color. It works great on brick or cement block, and might be good for your purpose as well. Have fun!
Dan
Swedish Custom painter and model maker. My Website:
My Railroad
My Youtube:
Graff´s channel
I agree with Dave, Tamiya TS-68 "Wooden Deck Tan" is a good color for concrete. I use it with touches of light grey whenever I want a "concrete" color on plastic or wood (great for sidewalks over balsa wood).
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
I had a good effect with light gray paint then colored with dirt/mud/gray colored weathering powders. Adds nice variation like real concrete.