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The "four band" technique for creating skies was developed by Danish master modeler Pelle Soeeborg. His technique was featured in Model Railroader several months ago. He uses oil paints rather than latex, but there is no reason latex won't work. He just likes the ability to come back and re-work an area for a longer time than latex paints permit. Rather than having to purchase four different colors of paint, consider purchasing your "deepest" blue for the crown of the sky, and then an "ultrapure" white. Then, mix them in different ratios. Your closest to the ground color should not be pure white, but rather mostly white with a portion of your deep sky blue - perhaps nine parts white to one part blue. Your next level up could be perhaps six parts white to four parts blue. Your third layer works out nicely at three parts white to seven parts blue. Your final layer should be one part white to nine parts blue. Note that I did not have any pure white or pure blue color. All should be blended. When blending your paints, it is o.k. to simply use the same bucket and re-mix your ratios. The idea is that the sky is not a rigid four part color stack, but rather a continuous change in shading from light at the horizon to dark at your zenith. Use a roller or even an airless spray rig for large surfaces, and use a large, soft brush for the blending. I have found that almost vertical strokes that cross several color bands gives the best blending effect. As for clouds, the stencil technique is very good, but the idea is not to place the stencil directly against your sky, but to space it out a bit - several inches - and then spray through it from afar, too. Build up your white in several passes, and don't try to really cover the sky color. Rather, you want to have a translucent effect. Use some pewter gray or neutral (18%) gray and spray LIGHTLY the bottoms of the clouds for a thicker,***ulous cloud effect. Note that on a hot summer day, where the***ulus clouds are constantly building, that the clouds will seem to be fairly well defined and spaced out near by, but as you look into the horizon, the clouds seem to almost clump together. This is caused by perspective, and is easy to reproduce. As your clouds get further away, however, add more blue/gray to the cloud color, and make them less detailed. Have Fun! Even the worst painted backdrop with the worst color imaginable looks better than none at all! Tom
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