How to paint buildings

[Doughless]

Eastrail11

Okay, so today I went to Micheals to pick up the pastels, but when I arrived, I noticed there are many types of pastels, oil, water, solid. Which type of pastel would be used to weather building, railcars, or engines. When I tried to look it up, I got even more confused! Now there are soft, hard, pencil, and oil. I have never seen anyone use pencil or hard to weather anything. 

~Eastrail

 

If you have a pencil sharpener, the ground up waste graphite makes excellent material for streaks and stains, but needs dullcote later.

I mix my own weathering paints from orange, red, yellow, gray, brown and black and white to either lighten or darken.  Mixing them on a pallett as I go tends to NOT produce two identical colors, unlike the factory-made weathering colors used straight from the bottle.  Any cheap household paint will work.  Of course, you can also mix the hobby weathering paints on a pallet yourself too.

[B. Bryce]

I would not ce

 

I accidently hit the Post button.

How do you delete a post here?

[B. Bryce]

hornblower

 

 

Eastrail11

I didn't think Air Brushes would be so expensive. 

 

Yes, airbrushes can be expensive and many here will insist that you MUST pay for a top line airbrush from the very beginning.  Having no experience with airbrushing at all, I did not want to spend a small fortune only to damage the airbrush because I didn't know enough about it to avoid such damage.  So, I bought the Harbor Freight Tools single action airbrush ($5 on sale) and an in-line regulator to hook it up to an old portable air tank I charge with my large compressor from my auto racing days.  I found this airbrush to be great for "general service" painting of rolling stock, structures and scenery.  I used this airbrush for over three years until the trigger rusted out.  I guess I didn't dry it out well enough after each cleaning.  I replaced it with another HFT single action airbrush at the regular price ($10) and I'm still using it to spray mostly acrylics and craft paints.  The important thing is to keep any airbrush as clean as possible.  You will spend more time setting up, tearing down, and cleaning your airbrush than you will actually painting with it.  However, the quality of the paint finish will be so much better than you can achieve with a regular brush that you'll never want to go back.  While a rattle can may be more convenient, the ability to spray any color paint you can mix with the most consistent and thin finish possible makes an airbrush worth all the effort.

A while after I bought the first single action airbrush, I also bought the HFT dual-action airbrush ($15 on sale).  I also bought the HFT braided hose.  Though I have not used the dual-action airbrush as often as the single action, I quickly found that it is much better suited to fine detail painting.  The first time I tried it, I found I could sign my name in lines about 1/16" wide.  I have since used it to paint rust drips and other fine detail weathering.  Just be warned that it doesn't come with any disassembly instructions.  Still fairly simple to figure out.

Needing a more portable compressor than my garage unit, I recently bought the HFT 3 gallon "hot dog" compressor ($45 on sale).  Its a little noisy but not nearly as loud as my garage unit. Otherwise, its a very nice little compressor that even comes with a quick disconnect hose attachment already installed.  The 3 gallon tank means there is no pulsing of the air flow and the whole thing weighs around 20 pounds.  

I think I've spent around $85 total for two HFT single action and one dual-action airbrushes, a braided air hose, an in-line regulator, and the hot dog compressor.  Best of all, the painting results I've achieved with this equipment has been of such good quality that I see no need to buy "better" gear.

Yes, you will see reviews for these items saying they are total crap but I suspect these were written by people who think its okay to drive screws with a hammer!  

 

I would not classify myself as an Expert on airbrushing, but I have been airbrushing for many years now, and I agree with some of what you say.

I also started out with a cheapo HF airbrush, but mine was a $20.00 dual action brush.  I learned a lot about using and cleaning the airbrush without the worry of destroying a $150 airbrush.

After I learned that it was never required to disassemble an airbrush every time you used it if you cleaned it immediately after spraying the paint, life became really much easier.  Right now, when changing colors, I immediately spray DI water or Laquer Thinner (depending on the type of paint I was using) through the brush until it comes out clear, then continuing on with the next color.  After I am finished spraying, I again immediately spray DI water or Laquer Thinner through the brush until it comes out clear, remove only the nozzle and needle, wipe them clean with a Q-Tip, dip the tip of the needle in Regdab Needle Juice (from Badger), put the nozzle and needle back in and put the brush away.  I have never had to go any farther than that unless I allowed the paint to dry in the brush.  You should never need to remove the trigger, clean the air ports or the adjusting mechanisms.

I then thought I would try a better airbrush, and I bought a Badger Chrome airbrush ($185.00), and WOW the difference in spray pattern control.  Like night and day.  Really awesome for fine detailing, but I found it was not really set up for general bulk painting of freight cars or buildings in general due to the very fine nozzles.  For that, I eventually bought the Badger Patriot 105 for $80.00.  That airbrush is really great for general work, not as detailed as the Chrome but far nicer than the HF.

I now have the HF brush for priming, as it throws a wide bulky not the best finish pattern that I know I will be sanding slightly anyway, a Badger Patriot 105  for bulk painting with paint (not primer) as it has a .5 mm nozzle for nice even coverage and really good control over wider areas, but not really great for fine detailing, and the Badger Chrome, which has a super fine nozzle and microscopic control for detail work.  The Patriot will spray the overall box car nicely, and the Chrome will detail the rivets! 

I clean these the same way as the HF brush, do not dissassemble, and do not have any problems, I just do it RIGHT AWAY.

You are right to learn on the cheap brush, but you will not regret moving up to a better brush once you have learned how to use one.  Trememdous difference if the finished product.  And once you start to see the results, you will find yourself using the airbrush more and more, but you will still need to use the normal paintbrush as well for washes and pastels.

PS, Sometimes I do use a screwdriver, sometimes a hammer, and on occasion, both together, but neither for painting! 

- Bob 

[7fdl]

doctorwayne

Here, the structure originally shown has been weathered using a dilute solution of India ink in 70% alcohol, applied as a wash using a 1/2" brush...

 

Wayne

 

Hi Wayne
Do you mind if I reply to your old post.

I was wondering if you ever experienced any of the India ink wash hurting the surface of your model when you applied it?

I've heard stories of the alcohol in the India ink wash softening up the acrylic paint applied on the model and causing a soggy mess.

But your end product looks great!
So you must know how best how to not over-do the wash application?
Or do you wipe most of the wash off with a rag quickly?

 

[doctorwayne]

7fdl

 ...Do you mind if I reply to your old post.

Not at all, especially if I can answer some questions that you might have.

7fdl

I was wondering if you ever experienced any of the India ink wash hurting the surface of your model when you applied it?

I've heard stories of the alcohol in the India ink wash softening up the acrylic paint applied on the model and causing a soggy mess. 

But your end product looks great!
So you must know how best how to not over-do the wash application?
Or do you wipe most of the wash off with a rag quickly?

 

If you use the 70% alcohol (or even dilute it with the addition of some water) it's not strong enough to affect paint that's dried and fully-cured (hardened).  I painted the brick using Pollyscale paint (airbrushed), while the concrete colour might be Floquil or perhaps Pollyscale, too.

I prefer Pollyscale, but will use whatever seems appropriate, colour-wise (and if there's enough of it to do a large structure).  While the orange colour is unaltered, the "concrete" colour was mixed - grey, with some white and yellow added, maybe some red, too.  I just fiddle with it until it looks suitable to my eyes.  If there's some left-over from one project, I often add to it, perhaps with some different colours, to make it just a bit different.

I'm pretty sure that this is Walthers' Red Wing Milling, another concrete structure, but in a somewhat different colour...

...and it's also part of a larger industry...

Here's another large grey-ish structure, although the colour is meant to represent ashlar stone.  The scribed mortar joints are difficult to see in the photo, as would be the real ones, as they're often the same colour as the stone and usually rather narrow....

I always assemble structures, especially large ones, before painting, as it allows you to address any poorly-done joints.  Doors and windows are usually airbrushed, too, but with those parts still on their sprues and masked accordingly.  This allows good coverage and the masked-off gluing areas allow easy installation.

Here's a large structure with lots of window openings...

Here's a sprue of doors and windows, masked-off and with grey primer applied...

...and after being airbrushed with white paint, and the masking removed...

...ready to be cut from the sprue and installed in the structure...

To get back to the issue with the India ink, I apply it generously using a 1/2" brush, but dilute it to give the degree of dirtiness that's desired for any particular project.  I also often use the brush to remove any excess ink before it dries.

I hope that I've addressed your issues, but let me know if there's anything else.

Cheers,

Wayne

 

 

[richhotrain]

Weathering!

The bane of my existence. Ugh.

I have never weathered anything, neither structures nor rolling stock nor locomotives in my nearly 17 years in the HO scale side of the hobby.

I would like to, I want to, yet I don't. There must be others like me out there.

What if I screw it up? Can it be reversed? Of course not. 

Why do guys like Wayne torment me with his beautiful photos?   

7fdl

Hi Wayne

Do you mind if I reply to your old post.

So, yeah, I mind. 

Rich

[NorthBrit]

richhotrain

Weathering!

The bane of my existence. Ugh.

 

I would like to, I want to, yet I don't. There must be others like me out there.

 

Rich

 

 

I was like you, Rich.  For years straight out the box and on the layout. 

Then I bought some kits that looked  too much like plastic.  Weathering was the only solution.

As for mistakes;  off course there is,  but I think I am getting better.  Some think otherwise. 

 

David

[riogrande5761]

I haven't built a lot of kit buildings, but they appear to all need painted to look right, otherwise they just look like plastic - the Walthers kits I have are generally molded in the color they are supposed to be, but they just look like red or blue plastic.  

[richhotrain]

riogrande5761

I haven't built a lot of kit buildings, but they appear to all need painted to look right, otherwise they just look like plastic - the Walthers kits I have are generally molded in the color they are supposed to be, but they just look like red or blue plastic.   

Oh, for sure. You gotta paint your structures. When I first started building HO scale structures in early 2004, nothing got painted. But, over time, everything on my layout got painted....but never weathered.

Rich

[7fdl]

doctorwayne

I hope that I've addressed your issues, but let me know if there's anything else.

Cheers,

Wayne

 

Thanks Wayne!

that answers my question.

 

By the way, what do you think the real purpose of mixing Alcohol in the India ink  is for?

 

Does the alcohol make the India ink flow better into the nooks and crannies of the model?

Or does it make the Wash dry faster?

 

I've heard a few expert modelers say they think the India ink technique is an old artifact from the past, not worth trying, and a thin wash made from modern black acrylic paint diluted with water is just as good.  On the other hand, some modelers swear by India ink and say it's a wonderful weathering tool that can't be beat.  Do you have an opinion about that?

 

[doctorwayne]

It seems that India ink is basically lampblack mixed with water, so the alcohol is used to improve the flow.  However, the alcohol evapourates faster than does water, so working time is shorter....okay, I guess, if you're in a rush, but not so good if you want a little more control over the results.

I've used both, but if using diluted acrylic paint, I always add a drop or two of dish soap - it breaks the surface tension and permits better flow and is cheaper than alcohol.  It also allows for a longer drying time, which is useful when you accidentally apply too much.  I usually use a brush to remove excess, but in some cases, a paper towel is better.  I prefer the acrylic paint, and was somewhat disappointed by the India ink results on the larger factory...

...as it was supposed to represent a newer building.  However, I've come to terms with its appearance, so no plans to redo it.

I think that the India ink might be the more useful option if you're weathering wooden structures, though, as the relatively rapid evapouration might allow for less warpage.  I gave-up on modelling wood structures decades ago, as I find styrene more versatile and easier to use. 
The last wooden structure I built, and the only such one on my layout, is this enclosed stairway access to the scratchbuilt yard crane behind the shops at Lowbanks...

It's built from sheet basswood, milled to look like corrugated metal siding.  It's based on a prototype, and was material leftover from a project in the early '70s to build a blast furnace, using blueprints of a real one.

Here's a couple photos of the never completed model...

The siding, structural steel, roof trusses and two-track skip bridge are all done in basswood.  I ran out of both money and space for the model, and it was eventually scrapped.

Wayne