I've been thinking of using regular interior latex paint to paint track, buildings and other scenery. I would dilute it a lot. Regular model paint is so expensive just to get a small amount. For example, a sample of railroad tie brown could be taken to a paint store (Walmart) to make the same color. Has anyone tried this? Thanks for your in put.
I use it to paint the base coat on my scenery, but for everything else I go to a discount art store and get the cheap tubes of acrylic paint. It's easy to work with and mixes easily to get exactly the color you want on structures and figures.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I went to Walmart and got their cheapest Dark brown and grey for the base colours on extruded foam. I used the $2.00 bottle of acrylics from Walmarts art dept, bought about 30 different colours the first time and have since added more. For track, I use the Rusty Rails painter and an airbrush. I use a camo brown airbrush ready paint on the track and then do bits of rust and greys with the rusty rails painter. I find it good for adding streaks of other colours on the ties as well as the rails. I would not use cheap paint on the track and suggest you view some of the video's on painting track on You-Tube.
I painted the elevator and the rocks with the $2.00 bottles from Walmarts art dept.
The more colours the better when painting the Rocky Mountain granite.
I first put the base grey on the rock.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
darrel480 I've been thinking of using regular interior latex paint to paint track, buildings and other scenery. I would dilute it a lot. Regular model paint is so expensive just to get a small amount. For example, a sample of railroad tie brown could be taken to a paint store (Walmart) to make the same color. Has anyone tried this? Thanks for your in put.
Yes for scenery. After finishing all my benchwork but before laying track I was able to get cans of deep brown latex paint -- someone must have had it mixed and then decided against it, and so the store was almost giving it away -- real cheap to cover all my benchwork tops with paint rollers as a base coat so it wasn't an "amber waves of plywood" look. I found it motivated my layout progress to not be looking at bare plywood - for some psychological reason or other.
I took some brown paint and added a little flat white for a first coat of a lighter brown over the actual scenery of plaster gauze and/or sculptamold. In fact I add some of the brown paint to the sculptamold so that if it chips it doesn't show a pure white (an old trick from plaster scenery days). I suppose I could have thrown some green Woodland Scenics foam to the wet paint for an initial scenic effect had I been so inclined.
So in short - yes for scenery, to a point at least.
For track in my experience I prefer the more "airy" look and texture of spray paint whether airbrush or rattle can rather than the single-shade density of brush painted. I do brush paint the sides of the rails when needed but even there I do not want a dense, solid single color but a "look."
For truly wood ties or bridge timbers I prefer the look of a stain to actual paint.
A bit too coarse in texture for scale buildings (or rolling stock or vehicles) I'd think but have not tried it myself.
Dave Nelson
Reading between the lines, part of the question he's asking is quite interesting: he's also asking about using latex paint formulated using colorimeter matching of "prototype" colors at a paint store to get a reasonable, and inherently reasonably reproduceable, batch.
At least one of our local paint stores will mix you a 'sample' of about 1oz size 'to code' for a couple of bucks. I have not asked if they'd match such a price for a full colorimetric formula match (as opposed to mixing to the nearest 'standard formula step' on their color sample cards) but I see no particular reason why not. There's relatively little 'dollar' advantage otherwise in buying sizes less than about a pint in color match, in my opinion.
The thing is that the quality of the paint at model scale, and its likely adhesion and longevity in model service, are almost certainly ridiculously lower than good hobby paint. That's of little importance for most scenery, or ties, or perhaps even the sides of rails, but a wide range of model applications for precise colorimetry demand a better film and perhaps better vehicle composition than any of the commercial interior paints offer.
He got me thinking about using latex on ties, in two colors, drybrushing one over the other for weathering or lighting effects. This might even be an application for thinnable tinted primer instead of a 'final coat' paint.
My base cover is plain ole latex house paint. Evert thing else is craft paint from wally world. Both brush and thru a airbrush.
The stores around here will toss mismatched paint the day it was returned,had to have them mix a colur for me.
I use paint from the local hardware store for scenery. I have a dried dirt color and a chocolate color. I cover fresh scenery, either plywood or plaster, with the dried dirt not being too careful to get complete coverage. Then use the chocolate to paint the spots I missed, again not being too fussy about how it looks. If the dirt color is still wet that's even better. It looks like brown camouflage when it's done. Putting grass, weeds, gravel, or real dirt over this paint gives a more natural look, at least to me.
I have some small bottles of craft paint but have not tried painting anything with it yet. I don't see any problems with it as long as it's thinned and put on in light coats.
If you have paint in metal cans, you might want to consider storing them in the cheap aluminum pie pans that can be bought in the grocery store. If the cans rust through, the paint will ooze into the pan instead of on the floor or shelf.
SouthPenn If the cans rust through, the paint will ooze into the pan instead of on the floor or shelf.
Now that is an old can of paint!
Anyway, kidding aside, I've also used the latex for scenery, and for ties, but for track, I used the traditional model paint. I think I used Model Master? Not sure.
It was mentioned earlier that some stores will mix you sample bottles, which works great. The Sherwin Williams store near me does this. Some stores, I know Home Depot and I think Lowes, as well, have a good selection of the little sample containers, that people didn't want, on sale for cheap. Actually many of the stores have a "returned" section of mixed paint.
Mike.
My You Tube
I've always used latex paint for sealing / coloring benchwork, for large expanses of blue/white backdrops, and for the cork roadbed (grey of course).
But for painting track and structures and such, I would go for acrylics or model paint. While the cost of a small bottle of Testors or the like is somewhat high, usually you just don't use all that much and if properly sealed they will last for some time.
In the interest of saving money, you might take a walk thru the art section of a Michaels or Hobby Lobby. There are all kinds of oil and acrylic paints to choose from, and many are fairly cost effective.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and ideas. I ran across this nifty little paint sprayer at the local hardware store. It has a pressurized spray can on top with a small glass bottle attached to the bottom. It can be used for any thinned paint including latex. Only downside is a different pressurized spray can needs to be used for each color since the paint goes thru the spray can. The one sprayer including the glass paint bottle was $5 and extra spray cans are $4. It's made by Preval. Their web site: www.preval.com Havent tried it yet but looks interesting.
Well I'll be! They seem to be sold in every hardware, big box and paint store around. I've never seen them before.
If you ever move up to an airbrush, I see their stuff is pretty pricey.
Well have fun!
Please let us know how well the Preval system works. Thanks.
The Preval system is sort of a modernized version of the old flit guns that some guys used way way back to paint large expanses (they were meant for bug spray). I regret to say I am old enough to remember flit guns quite well.
I had to look that up, Dave. I remember those hanging around the garage, and especially out at my grandpa's farm.
And I just learned that Flit was the name of the bug killer. I bet that thing got used for many different types of sprays, bug and weed. I never knew anyone to use them for paint! Who knew!
I use latex paint for my plaster scenery base. I’ve seen plastic model structures where people have used it but I didn’t think it looked right. It was much too thick and covered the fine details. I mostly use bottles of Tamiya paint for models, especially figures (people). The flat finish colors look really great. I try to avoid the gloss because gloss doesn’t look as nice. If I do have to use a gloss color I mix in a flat color like white to kill the shine. Sometimes I use the Wally World acrylic paints for things like roads or sidewalks. I have also used it for painting white Styrofoam balls green to be used as the base for trees, before adding foliage. Recently I discovered a couple of colors of paint in spray cans from Krylon, I tried Misty Gray colored chalk paint on some cement pipes and it looks great. It is a very light gray color and has a flat finish with just the tiniest bit of texture so it simulated concrete very nicely. I’m going to try to use it for all concrete in the future, except for wet cement which is darker. The other one I tried was Krylon color master modern white (flat matte finish). Modern white is an off white color which looks pretty nice on structures. It is what I would call a dirty white so you don’t need to weather it to tone it down. I’m going to use this on white buildings in the future.
Lots of people, as youc an see, use regular hosuehold latex paint on scenery. There have been articles and scenery books that mention it as well. I only built one layout tha thad a alrge plaster mountain, it was colored with ordinary household paint as well. My last layout,t he pink foam was hidden by a couple of coats of some browinish color I found on the mismatched color shelf at Lowes (they hid it behind the counter where they do the paint mixing, at least in my Lowes, so it wasn;t easy to find).
However, I would not recommend household latex paint for painting structures and vehicles. No matter how much you thin it, it's going to go on with too thick a coat. Craft acrylics from the craft store work well on many structures, especially wood kits, and can be a lot cheaper than hobby paints.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Don't do it, you are asking for it. Cheap rattle cans for painting track but I go for the Model Masters as one can will do a lot of track. I used less than 4 cans on a 15x30 foot layout.
Thanks again for your ideas and advice. The biggest reason I would like to try painting detail scenery with latex paint is that I have to order everything and the shipping and handling expense is out of control. I am miles from a hobby store of any kind. I would like to use hobby paint but just don't have it readily and "economically" available. I do use cheap brown latex to brush on over foam and scuptamold for dirt ground cover.
For base coat over plywood, hills (plaster cloth & Sculptamold atop) background sky, I use Home Depot sample jars (less than a pint) latex mixed to my preferred shade.
For track/ties, I use Rustoleum Camo 1918 Earth Brown rattle can.
For rocks (plaster or rubber molded) I use 99 cent hobby store acrylics, first a thin base coat wash, then dry brushed stronger accents and maybe an india ink or black wash to accentuate cracks.
The paints above go a long way per $.
I was going to use expensive bottled tie and track colors with my airbrush, but decided to paint the track as above before tackling the airbrush.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent