I use Gypsolite, which is a similar material. I squirt a bit of dark brown acrylic craft paint into each batch. Once it's mixed in, the dark brown thins to a light tan. After it dries, I've got a rough surface which looks very natural. Then, I take some olive green craft paint and thin it with water to make a "wash." I brush this on in a camouflage pattern, with more green in the low spots and around water:
I brush it all with thinned white glue, and add pinches of turf. I try to get brown turf on the brown areas, and green turf on the green areas, but overlap is fine, too. I typically use 3 different shades of turf. I don't use the shakers, but rather put a bit in the palm of my hand and add small bits with my fingers. I get much better control that way, and it doesn't really take very long unless you're doing a very large area. Then I add some ground foam and trees.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mike, the masonary dyes are dry powders, as is the tempera powder I mentioned. If the structolite turns out to be a bust, you can get tubs of pre-mixed drywall plaster/mud and add a bit of a watery paste of the dye or tempera to your tub and mix it with an industrial mixer like drywallers use. I would think, though, that the structolite should take the dye well...I just don't have a good handle on its ease of mixing.
Seems very little about our hobby is straightforward or easy as we go along.....
-Crandell
Thanks, I'll try mixing some acrylics and see what I get on a small sample. I'm always hesitant to just add paint to plaster products after having a bad experience many years ago when I tinted some plaster based texture paint and the stuff never hardened.
Structolite is a lightweight "brown coat" plaster. Selector's idea of masonry dyes is a good one - I will have to try it too.
I have used india ink to darken the grey and brown latex paint to make it more brown. You could try sepia ink too. Add the paint before the water or you may thin it excessively. Mostly, I just mix it with the water from the paint brush cleaning bucket and paint it after it dries.
It has a nice gritty texture that looks like ground and you can smooth it with a putty knife to look like rocks and rock outcroppings. I buy it by the 25# sack.
It has a long working time, and doesn't look white when chipped. Great stuff overall.
Karl
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
This is a clay and or cellulose-based product in a thick aqueous paste, or you add water to make a mud? Then you might as well experiment with water-based pigments and pastes/paints.
The cheapest and fastest, and probably as effective as any other, would be the Wal Mart craft section small plastic bottles of acrylic artist paints. It will be a bit of work, maybe even magic, to overcome the gray hue of this product...just so you know. But lots of tan colour, maybe little Burnt Umber (very little), and that would be about all you could do that way.
A more positive method would be to use masonary dyes (hardware/builders supply stores) or use tempera in powder form (craft stores). If you add maybe two heaping teaspoons of the dye to about four quarts of the product you should end up with something looking more soil-like. Masonary dyes come in earthy colours such as "mesa" and browns, black, red, yellow.
One of my model railroading friends has had good success using structolite for his scenery and I'm planning on using it for mine. My problem is that the color is a little too grey for me, so instead of painting it I thinking about trying to tint it. Has anyone had any success tinting structolite and if so what did you use?
Thanks