While looking for some realistic concrete color spray paint for a project, I bought a can of Krylon textured paint, Desert Bisque color, on speculation that if the cap was a close match to the contents it would be acceptable.
I was pleasantly surprised when it not only looked like concrete when it was dry, but it felt like it too. The color is really close to cured ''tan'' concrete and the texture in the paint makes it look more like concrete than just the flat tan paint I usually use. It has depth and the minute color differences make it reflect light just like the real thing.
At $4 a can it's not the cheapest, but the results were worth it. So next time you're looking for some spray paint to simulate concrete color...take a look at Krylon's textured paints.
This information is useful! I'll try it on my next concrete project.
Mark
is it possible to get a close-up picture maybe?
Jesper
LD357 wrote: At $4 a can it's not the cheapest, but the results were worth it.
At $4 a can it's not the cheapest, but the results were worth it.
With a bottle of Floquil at $4.99, four bucks sounds pretty reasonable.
Wayne
This is a wall of my theater building. I painted it with a Rustoleum speckled product from a rattle-can.
I used the same can to color the rock wall castings in the turntable pit:
For the pit, I weathered the walls with an India Ink wash to get them a bit darker and bring out the highlights of the casting. The theater is just the straight color of the paint.
Real rock and concrete isn't flat and smooth like styrene. It's got a lot of fine texture to it. So, these textured paint products give a more realistic look, because they respond more naturally to light. Both the non-uniform color and the uneven surface contribute to the optical behavior of model. (Dul-Cote, by the way, has a bit of "grittiness" to it, which "scrambles" the incident light and gets rid of those mirror-like "specular" reflections.)
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
There's two things I've tried to simulate creosote ties\wood parts, RIT black dye and cheap WallyMart flat black spray paint.
The dye works well for ties because no two pieces of wood ever look the same, I use matchsticks from the craft store,[pretty close to HO scale ties in size], Michaels or A.C. Moore, and just soak them in the dye mix overnight. They end up looking very much like sun weathered, used ties. The longer they soak the darker they get so soaking some for longer or shorter periods will yield a more diverse color range.
For new ties, like you might see in a stack at a maintenance area, I just glue them together and paint them flat black with a brush.
The cheap spray paint from WallyMart looks good on wooden trestles. I built several wooden trestle pieces [N scale] and then painted them with the spray can. They look pretty good. They are all uniform in color though, and if you wanted to make it super realistic you'd need to weather each one seperately, but all in all I was pleased with the results.
Wooden trestles that I've seen have ranged from a glossy black ''newly built'' look,to a gray\brown ''been there for 100 years'' look. So there's probably not a ''prototype'' color for trestles, whatever looks good to you is the right color!
Loathar.....if you ever discover that ''new board'' color absolutely let us know immediately!! I've tried light tan, almond and even mixed up some colors trying to get the perfect ''newly cut wood'' look....I only got ''sorta looks like new wood'' colors.
LD357 .....if you ever discover that ''new board'' color absolutely let us know immediately!! I've tried light tan, almond and even mixed up some colors trying to get the perfect ''newly cut wood'' look....I only got ''sorta looks like new wood'' colors.
.....if you ever discover that ''new board'' color absolutely let us know immediately!! I've tried light tan, almond and even mixed up some colors trying to get the perfect ''newly cut wood'' look....I only got ''sorta looks like new wood'' colors.
I used PollyScale Reefer White, with a bit of Reefer Yellow and Depot Buff mixed in to simulate spruce lumber. Reefer Yellow and Reefer orange mixed in varying proportions for knots and sap stains. Different species will be different colours, so it helps to look at the real wood which you're trying to simulate.
A very diluted wash of yellow and orange mixed together can be useful on basswood, to give it a less-white appearance. Apply successive coats to simulate different species. (in the photo, this looks lighter than it does in person)
For creosote, I use a very dark oil-based stain, then randomly streak it with thinned Floquil black, using a brush:
I use Rust Oleum stone paint.
You pretty much have to use the entire can in one sitting. Otherwise it is a struggle to keep the valve from plugging up.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
"Concrete" (color) in a can - Wonderful, but WHICH concrete color - new, old, or weathered??
Concrete when fresh is gray, turns to white when dry, and creamy yellow when aged in the sun. It also deveops CRACKS. I mix white and Floquil's 'MUD', and draw cracks to get the 'age' I want.
Creosote impregnated wood (ties) are BLACK-BROWN when new and fade toward GRAY. Since water is the culprit, ties drain differently and colors vary widely. Go look.
I used 1/8 inch square balsa wood to make this retaining wall.
I've got a small can of white wood stain. For a weathered fence, I add a little bit of India Ink. For creosote, I add more India Ink. I like to do the staining before assembly, because any exposed glue will not take stain afterwards.
The "timbers" are not separate pieces, by the way. I notched the long strips on the exposed sides to give that appearance.
Don Gibson wrote: "Concrete" (color) in a can - Wonderful, but WHICH concrete color - new, old, or weathered??Concrete when fresh is gray, turns to white when dry, and creamy yellow when aged in the sun. It also deveops CRACKS. I mix white and Floquil's 'MUD', and draw cracks to get the 'age' I want. Creosote impregnated wood (ties) are BLACK-BROWN when new and fade toward GRAY. Since water is the culprit, ties drain differently and colors vary widely. Go look.
Fresh concrete color can also depend on what kind of cure was sprayed(if any). Some gives it spotted and speckled white washed look while another makes it glossy. Usually after a few days the glossy look will fade. BTW, often a slab will not have a consistent color, especially the further back in history it is. Some batch plants aren't as accurate as others and sometimes the mix would vary throughout they day or pour on a multi-batch job (a little more/less water, weather conditions, too much slump, etc.) I usually use a Floquil concrete or aged concrete color with black ink washes.
As for the color black, I try not to use straight true black on any model unless I want to depict some obscured shadow area (like grill definition on a diesel loco or cracks in rocks). If you look at the prototype of something painted black (in real life or a picture), it will most likely look to be an off-black color, especially the older it gets. The realistic color of black on models has been discussed at length many many times before so I won't go on.
I made a mistake, the Desert Bisque color IS in fact, Rustoleum brand....I got it and some dark tan paint at WalMart and the dark tan was Krylon, sorry!
The Desert Bisque color I have is a nice tan very similar to cured concrete, I don't know what colors of concrete you may see Chutton, but tan is a very common color for aged, cured concrete.
As for it being ''scale''....well there's not going to be any such thing as ''scale concrete color paint'', the best you can do is try to get the color as close as possible. The rough texture of the paint makes it more ''scale'' than a simple covering of tan, gray or brown paint. Concrete has texture and depth and just painting a piece of styrene tan or gray isn't going to yield anything but a flat, monochrome painted piece of plastic.
I am very satisfied with the Desert Bisque color and will continue to recommend that others try it.
Concrete texture also varies. It can be smooth, like a floor in a building to rough like exposed aggregate. It all depends on how it was finished or ground out. If the idea of concrete texture is like that of a sidewalk or street then in HO scale it would be the equivalent to 400' grit sandpaper. You can get that texture with nearly any spray paint or paint with an airbrush. You just have to spray it in a way that most people try not to. To do this try painting with the nozzle a little further away than normal so some of the paint particles partially dry by the time they reach the surface you are paining. A realistic exposed aggregate may be the hardest to replicate because of all the different colors of the individual rocks.
BTW, concrete can be custom colored by mixing in concrete color dyes.
Good tip!! I've been looking for something to simulate concrete sidewalks and tan paint ain't makin' it. I never thought of that texture spray paint, I tried spraying sand that I glued to a piece of cardboard with tan paint and it looked horrible, that rustoleum stuff is almost perfect.
Thanks for the heads up, got any other tips and secrets??
Interesting enough, this months Model Railroader (July 2008) mentioned use of Rustoleum Textured spray as Stucco (Sandstone) in Gary Hoover's Sand Bernardino station - with a picture of the spray can itself by the unfinished station front on page 51. Hmmm.Well, I went ahead and brought a can of Desert Bisque, and will test it when I get a chance (from what I read so far in this thread, seems like I will need to prod and clean that spray nozzle out after the first use so I can use it again - nasty clogger the textured paint, right?)
chutton01 wrote: seems like I will need to prod and clean that spray nozzle out after the first use so I can use it again - nasty clogger the textured paint, right?)
seems like I will need to prod and clean that spray nozzle out after the first use so I can use it again - nasty clogger the textured paint, right?)
Yes.
VERY nasty clogger.
But it works great the first time.
The best system is to prepare all the places you need it so that you can use the entire can in one session.