Realistic colors for an entire model railroad. How do the pros do it?

[Anonymous]

All of the best layouts I’ve seen in MR (and other magazines) have a very well tied together color scheme. On one such layout (a switching layout – the name escapes me at the moment – Port Chelsie maybe? – back in 1998 or so) the creator explained how he used a particular wash of stain on every single item that went onto the layout. It was obvious from the photographs that all of the colors were very well blended together.

Does anyone have any other tips for blending the colors together? To me, this seems to be the single biggest factor between toy-like layouts and realistic looking railroad pictures.

I'm wondering if maybe everything could be slightly airbrushed a particular shade of brown or grey, etc. It also seems like all scenery could use a similar treatment.

[Anonymous]

I unsure of what your talking about. However, I am a firm believer in everything on my layout having paint on it and 99.9% of the paint will be a dull or flat color. This especially holds true of structures. If you don't paint them, you will never have a realistic layout. I feel it is also appealing if the railroad structures have a paint scheme and this scheme is carried through out. Don't know if I am any help, but, that's my 2 cents worth.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you understood what I was talking about - you recommended 99.9% of your colors to be dull. This is the kind of info I'm searching for here!

[Anonymous]

Geography enters into it as well; if you look at photos of certain regions, you might notice an overall hue which seems to underlie it all. In Georgia (USA), the red clay soil affects all the scenery, even when it isn't exposed; the shades of green in the pine trees and grasses leans a little bit more towards the orange-yellow end of the green spectrum (as opposed to the blue-green opposite end, which would be found in the Cascade mountains of Washington State). By paying attention to the overall tone, you can generate a more cohesive sense of place. One way to impart the basic tone is to find a weathering medium (like chalks or airbrushing) of the appropriate color, and apply a thin coat of it to everything. Here in Cincinnati, the basic tone would be a sort of limestone-biege color, which would tend to make everything go towards grey when weathered. Other places might be more of a saturated brown, or a darker grey, or even the red-orange of iron ore.

This kind of thing is commonly done with movies these days, and it is called "grading". In a movie, shifting the overall hue of a scene is used to key in certain emotions or understanding of the scene, such as the thick green cast of the Matrix films. A model railroad could attempt the same thing, such as amping up the yellows in order to make the "sunlight" seem more intense (human eyes are most sensitive to yellow and green), or sepia tones might be emphasized to make the layout come off as an old faded historical photograph. Bill Henderson did this with his nostalgic layout, in fact, to very good effect.

[RhB_HJ]

The easiest way to do it is keep your eyes open!

There's nothing like studying nature to find out what makes certain features appear a certain way, i.e. arid areas will most likely have any amount of dust both from what the wind picks up as well as what man disturbs with his activities.

Also important is the light and shadow game which can be simulated by using different shades of scenery materials.

As mentioned, almost everything is "flat" so forget about shiny "whatever" unless it just came out of the paint shop.

[Anonymous]

Likely you noticed the 'dullness' on the rolling stock and structures matched the color of the 'dirt' on the layout. Doubtless the modeler had made a wash, put on under the final spray of dullcote, which was a dilute version of color used in his earth.

Other possibility: he watches "*** Eye for the Straight Guy"

Randy

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. How did Bill Henderson do that? When I was a kid, reading about his coal belt RR, I was blown away by the pictures.

Now as an adult, I'm getting back into model railroading again, and want to make something closer to what he made than to the very toylike layouts I had as a kid.

[Anonymous]

Lighting seems to be a criticle element, which some over look. Flourescent lights fling off a green hue that we don't always detect. Several articles in MR 4 or 5 years ago went into the art of balancing light. lots of blue, some red and white bulbs. Hard on the old electricity bill! I'm now in the process of going to Halogen track lighting, which appears to be a good balanced light, except it can be harsh and create unwanted shadows.

Another thing that my LHS told me about it a colour called mudstone. this is good as it gets for cement wash and makes a good colour for painting bricks and cement rocks.

Again I'm still learning and have along way to go.

[Anonymous]

Fergie:

I recall seeing, a few years ago, what were marketed as 'true sun' flourescent bulbs. Had any experience with them?

Randy

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rda1964


Fergie:

I recall seeing, a few years ago, what were marketed as 'true sun' flourescent bulbs. Had any experience with them?

Randy

I've seen them on some of the ship's I've sailed on and though the light is suppose to be in the same spectrum as the sun and yes they seem to be better then other fluorescent bulbs, they're still fluorescent. Bright, harsh and hard on the eyes. During a two year stint in the office, an OSH Nurse did several assessments on work areas around me and recommended that the overhead lights should disconnected and an alternative and less direct source be found to light the area due to excessive glare caused. You can well imagine how that went over!

I believe they can be used successfully if they produce indirect light. Anytime I've seen them used on a layout; they're used in conjunction with valences.

Lighting would make a good "thread"

[RhB_HJ]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Fergus

Lighting seems to be a criticle element, which some over look. Flourescent lights fling off a green hue that we don't always detect. Several articles in MR 4 or 5 years ago went into the art of balancing light. lots of blue, some red and white bulbs. Hard on the old electricity bill! I'm now in the process of going to Halogen track lighting, which appears to be a good balanced light, except it can be harsh and create unwanted shadows.
............................

Halogen will also bleach/fade your scenery more than incandescent.

[ClinchValleySD40]

Weather EVERYTHING. Amazing how many people devote tons of time to wethering engines and freight cars, but do nothing on buildings, autos, people, etc. then wonder why it looks toy like.

[CBQ_Guy]

I put a thin "dust" wash of my basic earth color on pretty much everything, even figures and low scenery. I got the idea for this from Dave Frary's book/video? Really seemed to tie things together and make it all just look "right", IMO.

[Anonymous]

clinchvalley Posted: 15 Jan 2004, 09:09:34 Quote


Posts: 82
Joined: 18 Jun 2001
Location: US
Weather EVERYTHING. Amazing how many people devote tons of time to wethering engines and freight cars, but do nothing on buildings, autos, people, etc. then wonder why it looks toy like.
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CBQ_Guy Posted: Today, 13:54:20 Quote


Posts: 203
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
I put a thin "dust" wash of my basic earth color on pretty much everything, even figures and low scenery. I got the idea for this from Dave Frary's book/video? Really seemed to tie things together and make it all just look "right", IMO.

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These two post are so very true along with dull flat coloring. Remember, we live in dirty, dusty world. That's the norm for nature in our world, The sun destroys everything colorful after a time, and so does rain, snow, wind, dirt, dust and probably a half a dozen other elements in our atmosphere, including polution. Sooooooooo how do we represent this, dirty flats colors, peeling paint, dirt, dust, weather beaten old appearances, broken streets and sidewalks, rubbish in the big city streets, discarded sinks and other bathroom fixtures, old rusted out cars, even a burned up car still sitting next to the sidewalk or out in the middle of a vacant lot, cracked masonery etc. even down to the old side of town, bums, drunks etc, and yes, even the red light district. On this one please, if you didn't see the thread on "THE HOUSE OF ILL REPUTE", please go there and check it out. It was started by me, and centers on a new kit called "WICKED WANDA'S" by BARMILLS. You may also want to check out these two web sites for ideas. They're great.
http://www.horailroad.com/fsm/fsmlayout.html

http://barmillsmodels.com/

Enjoy
[:D][:D][:D][:D]When you model this last element remember, in the early part of the 20th century, this made up a major portion of town but later toward the 50's onward, cities did start to clean this element up some and over time it became more concentrated in the old run down areas of town, "THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS", "THE BAD PART OF TOWN", "SKID ROW" ETC. I'm sure you've heard them all, take your pick.[:)][:)]It can be modeled full blown or just a hint of what reside there, or anything in between. Have fun and enjoy.