painting buildings

[Anonymous]

The main reason that I'm into this hobby at the moment is putting together the buildings. In the past I've always used testors enamal paint. Now I see out other paints, which I believe are acrylic. Could I just buy regular "painter's" acrylic paint and water it down? It's about the same price as the enamal is (oz for oz), but with it being watered down, it would go much farther.
Also, if I can do this, what ratio or water to paint should I use? Or should I guess and try to get it as close to the Floquil paint consistancy as I can?

Thanks in advance for the help
Kevin

[joseph2]

I like to use the cheap craft acrylic paint Wal Mart sells.It costs around $1 for two ounces,I don't water it down. Joe G.

[Jetrock]

Cheap acrylic paint can be used, and those sort of paints can be good to learn with if you're starting out, but cheap paint is always going to look kinda cheap. Such paints would probably be most suitable for scenery and buildings, but probably not as suitable for rolling stock unless you wanted a kind-of cruddy look.

But heck, you can dilute Polly S acrylics too...

[Anonymous]

I would give your building at least a base coat of the "good" paint - it is designed to stick to plastic and metal, which the craft or dollar store paints are not. Once you have the base coat, you can go to town with the cheaper stuff for weathering, mortar lines, etc, etc.

I have read that thinning with blue washer fluid gives good results, but have not tried ti myself. I either dry-brush, or use the paints with a damp brush. Don't really thin them at all.

Andrew

[cwclark]

I use those cheap acrylic paints from hobby lobby..they come in zillions of colors and i don't dilute them...just stir them real good and it will glide on the plastic with a brush just fine...if you want to weather them after painting then you can thin it out

[orsonroy]

I use the el cheapo craft paints for anything that doesn't have wheels on my layout. I also use them extensively for weathering paints. They're great, and MUCH cheaper than the hobby paints we're brainwashed into buying for every little hobby project.

I'd only recommend adding a Floquil spray primer coat to shiny plastic buildings. Resin, wood and the plastic that DPM uses won't need a primer coat before using the craft paints, as their surface is rough and gives the paint plenty of places to hold.

[cwclark]

there was a good article in MR this month on painting buildings...the guy painted the building brick black..then barn red...then washed it with a 50/50 mixture of white paint and water and then took a fine steel wool pad and rubbed off the paint...sounds like something I'm going to try someday...he used that cheap acrylic paints too...

[mondotrains]

Hi Kevin,
For painting buildings, I use "cheap" paint but it is spray paint like Krylon or Wal-Mart's cheap spray paint. The Krylon and Wal-Mart primer colors such as red, brown or gray look great on brick buildings. Take the building sides outside and spray them according to the can's directions.
I use the inexpensive acrylic paints such as Delta Ceramcoat to paint the windows and other small details. As far as the mortar lines, the article in this month's MR is more complicated and messy than required. Painting the surface with paint and then removing it with steel wool is a pain. Just take some sheetrock joint compound and thin it with water, about 50/50. Paint it over the brick walls and when dry, start removing it with a small sponge (small sea sponges available at craft stores work great and don't dissintigrate like kitchen sponges) on the large surfaces and use Q-tips for the corners and smaller surfaces. Just keep removing the white compound until you like the look. Afterwards, I usually apply a thin wash of India ink mixed with isopropyl rubbing alcohol (available at drugstores for around 89 cents a pint). I only use 4-5 drops of India ink for a pint of alcohol. The India ink wa***ones down the white of the joint compound and makes the mortar lines look more like cement.

Hope this helps.
Mondo

[cwclark]

indian ink is good for a lot of things..i use it when i do mountains...I build the mountain out of pink foam and after cutting, chiseling and scraping, the mountain cracks, crevices, overhangs, ect... i paint the whole mountain white with a cheap latex paint...then i look at the mountain and where light in the room doesn't penetrate the mountains (the shadowy areas) I take a spray bottle of indian ink and spray it in those areas..it really enhances the shadows..after it dries I start staining the mountains with raw seinna (50% paint / 50% water), at the upper levels of the mountain...then burnt sienna (50%/50%) in the middle portion of the mountain, and finally, red iron oxide (50%/50%) towards the bottom....it can't get more "southwestern landscape" looking than that and the indian ink shows the shadows in the mountain really well..it also works well with grays, whites, and tans like the guys use to model the eastern part of the country as well...

[Anonymous]

hi
Use any paint you like but have a good quality primer / undercoat and do not forget to spray paint the building inside black before assembling the buildings this pays divedends when you go to light up the buildings.
Also put curtains over some windows making sure they ar well down around the edges and paint the inside black so not all the windows light up.
That may seem a bit off the mark but it is done with paint.
regards John