My opinion - painting over the colored plastic will give the best results. But I can understand why you may not want to. Painting an already assembled structure can be a pain.
I like the idea previously mentioned of spraying first with a flat clear spray like Dullcote. It will make it look better already, and provide a tooth for weathering methods to adhere to.
- Kevin
Check out my shapeways creations! HOn3 and railroad items for 3D printing:
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If you simply paint the structure a dirty white or light gray, flat sheen; even making a point to not have pristine coverage over the old color everywhere, it will go a long way to making the structure look old. Giving it a wash of various weathering colors using vertical strokes will help the crevices take on a dirtier look.
Rock crushers are typically painted light colors because of the dust that settles. No point for the prototype to paint them pretty colors since the light colored dust pretty much coats the structure.
- Douglas
Nice layout Mike looks great
ouch
Make sure you unplug the blender before you empty it. I learned that the hard way.
Joe Staten Island West
Andy110675Dont have a motar and pestel but i suppose the food processor would work just as good lolChef
There ya go ! just make sure you clean it up before she catches you! I got caught using the blender to chop up one of the kids foam footballs for my homemade ground foam scerey material. Who knew she would finish the grocery shopping in record time! I figured I had a couple hours!
That Christmas, I got her one of those new "food processor" contraptions, and I got the old blender to abuse as I please. This was in the 90's.
Sorry, I just had to confess.
Mike.
My You Tube
Burn the evidence?
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Dont have a motar and pestel but i suppose the food processor would work just as good lol
I suppose charcoal is charcoal but if you crush it in your wife's kitchen motar and pestel you are on your own
Finer is better tho'
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Cheers for the feedback i think im going to go with the charcoal and the tamiya finish.This might sound daft but couldnt i just use normal charcoal lumps crushed its just that i have a bag of lump charcoal.
If you do go the spray can route, you'll find you'll get a lot better result with Tamiya spray can paints. The nozzle is set to deliver a very fine spray, similar to a low-to-medium cost airbrush. In general, try to paint as much as you can while the parts are on the sprue. You can buy small jars of matching Tamiya colors to touch up the paint.
Otherwise for weathering, I find the 'old reliable' is powerdered charcoal, available at art stores. I brush it on all over a finished model (but before adding window glazing) and use a soft paper towel to remove a bit if it's too thick - you want a kind of 'patina' over the model, not splotches of black with other areas clean. Then you can spray with Tamiya flat finish from a can. Unlike powdered weathering chalks, the powdered charcoal doesn't dissolve / disappear when hit with the flat finish spray. You can always add touches of weathering chalk later of course.
I find that pre-colored structures (and rolling stock for that matter) can be made considerably more acceptable with a simple thorough coat of Testor's DullCote spray lacquer (rattle can). This is particularly true where the color is in the plastic -- even trainset quality freight cars where the color is in the plastic rather than an applied coat of paint look much more "solid" and toned down, less waxy, with DullCote.
Moreover DullCote leaves a finish with enough "tooth" to it that weathering powders adhere to it.
If there are colors to your kit that you still don't like, by all means repaint them, but some original colors might be just fine if toned down with DullCote.
If changing colors, a spray can gray primer might be a good first step - make sure it is plastic compatible. In some cases the gray primer makes a good final color!
As with any rattle can, DullCote and that gray primer benefit from thorough shaking of the can - I never use rattle can paints until I have shaken them for a full minute, preferably two minutes. I do my painting outdoors when I can (not just for the ventilation but to keep the odors out of the house), otherwise I use the same vented spray booth I use for my airbrush painting.
And while it seems to "waste" paint, when done hold the can upside down and spray for a few seconds to clear out the nozzle for next time. Throwing away a perfectly good but hopelessly clogged can is the real waste. When done with a can, save the nozzle and put it in some thinner for a while. Having a spare, clean nozzle is always a good idea.
By the way, most Michaels craft stores have Testor's DullCote - and a 40% or even 50% off any one item coupon in the Sunday paper. I go through a lot of DullCote!
Dave Nelson
Thanks for that i will give it a go never weathered anything before but theres always a first,
https://www.faller.de/xs_db/BILD_DB/1/130/www/750/130170.jpg
In my opinion, most plastic kits look too bright and if you don't paint them it looks like everyone else's model.
I would use a diluted gray with an airbrush on the green bins, but you could probably get buy with a brush, or pan pastels. The roofs on the small building look like they are the same color. I can't tell if the are supposed to be metal or tar paper. It tar I would paint them black or dark gray, if metal I would paint them some other color. I would not hesitate to use spray can to do that.
Again you can use pastels. Dullkote spray before and after. Then you have to dirty everything up with whatever shade of rock you are crushing, dirty the roofs and that equipment at the bottom. Add some rust somewhere.
It really isn't that much different than weathering rolling stock. Plenty of youtube videos on that.
Can anyone give me some advice on weathering pre coloured plastic buildings.I dont know if anyone is familiar with fallers rock crushing plant but the problem im having is everything is coloured for you and i find it looks very toy like so is there anyway to weather it without painting the whole thing with a base colour and starting from fresh.I cant find much on youtube regarding pre coloured kits.