Hey everyone, just wondering....Does anyone have a paint code for a nice blue color for the sky to go on a backdrop? I have had several over the years but have never saved a paint code. Thanks!
No paint codes, but depending how much area you need to paint, it might be prudent to get a swatch based on photographs of the area you're modeling, and look at those colors under the layout lighting to make your decision. I've used several blues on different backdrops, and depending on the light source it can look pretty dramatically different.
Phil
I picked a color I liked at Home Depot. I painted the backdrop with that straight plus 3 somewhat lighter shades diluted with some white, in horiontal strips. I used 4 small paint trays and rollers and blended the strips together, as i read about somewhere. I tried and failed on clouds so re-did that to just the blues.
20200820_071935 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200820_071946 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200722_142259 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I just got a blue I liked at Lowes
The hardboard was primed with 2 coats of high hide white primer. One coat of blue. I got it made with not the cheapest base but the next one up. I can get the code next time I go downstairs. I am in no way artistic so no attempt to blend shades or paint clouds. The lower deck, a reasonable height person won't see a whole lot of, and the upper deck is going to mostly have rising scenery to the backdrop, so only the very top of the sky will be visible in many areas anyway.
To pick a color, i got some color cards and then went over tot he lighting department where they have examples of the different color temperature LEDs on display, and looked at the card under the lights closest to the LED strips I will install to illuminate each deck (the room lights are not part of the layout lighting), so the finished product will look a bit different to my photos (taken with a phone and no white balance correction).
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I like the color Randy used. I used about the same. IMO, the backdrop sky blue should be on the light side, even tilted toward the gray side more than a deep bluish.
A person could get fancy and try to mimick ground surface haze, where the sky appears almost white sometimes as it gets closer to the horizon. IMO, the vertical distance our backdrops represents is really too short to get the transition from ground haze to high sky blue, so I just use one color that's kind of in between.
Edit: After seeing Paul's sky, he did the white lower sky into the higher more blue sky thingy pretty well. Congrats.
- Douglas
I originally painted my most recent backdrop in a color I was suggested, but it looked to light to me. Then I painted it darker.
This is a personal choice, what looks right to me might not be good for you.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I used three colors of blue, fairly dark, medium, and light, and applied them with a roller with the dark blue above, the medium in the middle and the light, almost white but there is blue in it on the lowest level. I blended them together with a very WET paint brush, and while I was at it used some white and the light blue to create the cirrus or cirrostratus clouds which I prefer to cumulus clouds which too often end up looking cartoon like (Simpsons cartoons in fact) unless one is a better artist than I.
The trick is to use three variants of the same blue, so I selected my three blues from the free Glidden color sample swatch at the paint store that had 6 variants of blue on it, but any one brand of paint you like should get you to the same place. The point is to avoid mixing brands and thus mixing shades of different blues.
I am sure the Glidden I used is no longer available, or rather, they've likely changed the names and numbers. It was a six panel blue paint sample and my darkest was the second from the top, and the light blue was the color at the bottom; the medium was third from the bottom.
Dave Nelson
dknelson I used three colors of blue, fairly dark, medium, and light, and applied them with a roller with the dark blue above, the medium in the middle and the light, almost white but there is blue in it on the lowest level. I blended them together with a very WET paint brush, and while I was at it used some white and the light blue to create the cirrus or cirrostratus clouds which I prefer to cumulus clouds which too often end up looking cartoon like (Simpsons cartoons in fact) unless one is a better artist than I. The trick is to use three variants of the same blue, so I selected my three blues from the free Glidden color sample swatch at the paint store that had 6 variants of blue on it, but any one brand of paint you like should get you to the same place. The point is to avoid mixing brands and thus mixing shades of different blues. I am sure the Glidden I used is no longer available, or rather, they've likely changed the names and numbers. It was a six panel blue paint sample and my darkest was the second from the top, and the light blue was the color at the bottom; the medium was third from the bottom. Dave Nelson
Agreed in using different colors, but you can easily get that with draining some blue and mixing it with some white that you paint on the horizon. Skies are lighter at the horizons than directly above.
Different shades of blue depend on multiple factors. Nothing too crazy and you're fine. You want attention on the layout over the backdrop.
When we moved into this house 15 years ago, the concrete block basement walls had a few tiny leaks that I was able to take care of by 'painting' the walls with a couple coats of waterproofing paint. I got it Menard's, I forget the brand name (Drylok? Zinsser?) but it came in white, yellow or blue. It turned out the blue was a very close match to the color blue in Randy's picture in his earlier post. I was able to get Menard's to mix up a gallon to the same color but just regular (cheaper) paint that I use as the main color on my backdrops (I usually blend a little white in on the lower part to make a bit of a transition light to dark). The advantage is that the unfinished scenes on the layout at least have a blue wall behind them matching the finished backdrop sections.
Sky color is a function of humidity
That is why Colorado skies are really blue and east coast skies with high humidity are whiter
My advice: choose a rather darker 'overhead' blue for higher up the wall, and when you get to the level where your soon-to-be skyline will appear behind the scenery at its highest, you'll tint some of what's left with white to impart that whitening-near-the-horizon effect.
I got a can of the blue paint, shown closest to the ceiling in the photo below, then cut it with some white to create the mid-height sky below, and near the horizon, added even more white...
I tried to put the three colours on "wet", in order to soften the transition between colours, but the paint dried faster than I could work.
In the areas where I planned to eventually add a partial second level to the layout, I did two skies, one for each level...
While seeing the real sky when it's a deep blue is an impressive sight, it's not usually all-that-common around here, so I'm glad that I went with a lighter version, as it looks more like what I usually see outdoors. It also helps to reflect light onto the layout, making all that stuff on which we spend so much time and money, look even better.
Wayne