Painting

[Anonymous]

I have a few questons on painting.

1) Can testors dull cote be used on the plastic buildings such as walthers conerstone series.I read that it can be used on the roling stock to knock the gloss of new cars , does this apply to all brands of roling stock. The reasion i ask is the spray can warns not for use on polyrthylene plastics.

2) when trying to add mortar to plastic brick buildings i use the technic discribed in one of the MR books i bought i tried to apply acrylic paint and wipe it off ten minutes later this worked , except for in some of the hardrer areas to get to, i couldent get into them to wipe it off properly, now that it is a day later and the paint is dry is their a way to clean thease parts up to remove the paint off the serface of the rest of the bricks.

3) Any books,vhs tapes, or web pages that show different technics on doing this and other painting and realistic scenery would be greatly appreated .

thanks in advance .....

[colvinbackshop]

I've used Dullcoat on most everything (even the raw plastics) and haven't had a problem. I have also used Krylon Artist's Mate, but it is more of a semi-gloss, then dull. In all honesty though...most of the surfaces have some sort of paint and weathering on them before sealing with the Dullcoat...even my brick gets a shot of paint before setting the mortar lines. And just a thought...try Roberts Mortar. I'm not sure that it's any better then a paint wash, but it works well.
Regarding getting that extra paint off your brick buildings. Try warm water and a chunk of cotton sock over the end of a pencil eraser, or even just the eraser. If you still can't get off everything you want, you can "wash " most everything off with dish soap, warm water and a tooth brush and start over with an additional layer of paint before setting lines.
Or you can go totally nuts with a "self lesson" in weathering...Try some additional washes of earth-tone browns and greens or some very dilute (mixed with water or alcohol) India Ink.
Another approach is white glue and water (50/50 or even a bit more water) then sprinkle very fine green ground cover to simulate ivy or moss covered brick..or do any combination of all the above!
If the weathering lesson sounds a bit too bazaar, just try the India Ink wash over the areas that are deemed "too white". After all, most brick buildings we see along the track are pretty grimmy, you will be amazed!