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[Anonymous]

I plan to use the existing white latex primed drywall walls that surround my new HO layout as a background rather than use hardboard supported by the layout. It is my current plan to paint a sky using three colors of latex paint to simulate a clear, cloudless sky.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts as to how I can blend these three colors so that they go from lighter to darker shades as you look up from the layout? Thankyou for your help!

*** Burroughs

[tree68]

There was an article fairly recently in MR, if I recall correctly, that is the answer to your question. I'd seen it before, too.

The short answer is to start with a couple of shades of sky color, one light, one dark, then paint the bottom the light color, the top the dark color, then blend them while they are still wet. I should have used a darker dark, and my backdrop is only about 18", but the technique worked well for me.

[ndbprr]

Two colors are adequate. Sky is bluer overhead and whiter toward the horizon so buy a gallon of sky blue and a gallon of ceiling white ( bone white if you want posluted sky on the horizon. In about a 2' wide area paint the white on at the bottom and about half way up. Do the same for the blue from the top down. Then take a four inch brush and blend them working horizintally. They will run together and even out. If you want you can the take a four inch brush with a very tiny amount of white paint and scrub it into the surface to blend in cumulous clouds and just a touch of a gray on the bottoms of the clouds. You will be very surprised what you can do with a little practice. I practiced on the sides of cartons and had the technique down in fifteen minutes. Like anything else 90% is just starting the job.