Have bought a couple DPM storefront kits in N-Scale to pass the time away and give some new fodder for my recently acquired airbrush. I have gotten a base brick color onto the building and will now attack the sills. Anyone have any reccomendations for painting those small windowsills and trim? Small brush? Painful and tedious masking? Also, has anyone successfully simulated grout on an N-scale DPM building? The bricks are actual scale size, but that makes the "grout" area so small and narrow that the conventional paint-on-grout-color-and-wipe-off method doesn't seem to work.
As painful as it is, I usually mask them and use spray paint. Any time I've tried to hand paint them, the paint adds too much thickness to the windows and it looks slightly wrong.
My technique is to dilute what I use (can't remember the name - it's a commercial product) and add some gray to soften the brightness.
=>Also, has anyone successfully simulated grout on an N-scale DPM building? =>The bricks are actual scale size, but that makes the "grout" area so small =>and narrow that the conventional paint-on-grout-color-and-wipe-off method =>doesn't seem to work. =>
=>tia =>Tim Gill
Make a wash of the mortar colour (_not_ white - light greys and light browns are correct), and brush on. Use acrylics, not solvent based paint for this. The wash will settle in the mortar grooves, and add that touch of colour. You can add wash two or three times before it, er, "weathers" the brick too much. BTW, look around you at brick buildings - you very rarely see actual mortar lines. If you want to add the effect of "bloom" -- that white powder that appears on some brick when rain reacts with the mortar - use a denser wash of white acrylic paint. Practice on the side of the building that won't be seen. :-)
I model in HO scale, but my comments should apply.
Paint the sills with a small brush, a steady hand, and a careful eye. Avoid too much caffeine. Airbrushing the base coat is better than hand painting. Even though most paint evens out OK (especially polyscale), hand brushing is too thick for the imbedded details, like grout.
I use tempura paints for grout. I use black, white and brown and mix a color I like depending on the brick color. Make sure that the base coat is dry; I wait 24 hours. Then I just paint on the tempura paint and wait for it to dry, an hour or so. I don't paint it on too thick, but make sure that the grout depressions are covered.
When it is dry, I use a FLAT sponge with almost no texture to them. The side of those large sponges which are purchased all dried out and flat in mess bag work well. I use the edges, not the large flat surface with the holes. I dampen the sponge and wipe off the tempura. It wipes off easily when it gets wet leaving the tempura in the grout depressions. With care, you won't remove any of the tempura in the grout areas and it will look terrific.
You should then overspray (DON'T USE A BRUSH: it will likely remove some grout) with a flat finish: Dullcoat or Poly flat sprayed will work. This seals the grout from damage. It is very delicate and ANY moisure will remove it, including all wet decals.
Ed. in article Y5c9b.10$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com, Tim Gill at swinger snipped-for-privacy@h0tmail.cm wrote on 9/14/03 10:28 PM:
I use a 10/0 brush, an optivisor, and fairly thin acrylic paint. not having any caffine in your system helps, too!
Try using a VERY thin "wash" of a good quality paint the color of the mortar you want. Depending on the paint you used on the bricks, you might try using alcohol to make the wash rather than water (assuming you use acrylics). The alcohol will "spread" better rather than bead up on the surface. You probably will have to do several coats.
Of course, if the building is going to be further back than a foot or so from the viewing position, don't bother. You can't see mortar lines on real buildings very well from much more than 200 feet anyway, unless you have _very_ good eyesight!
Tim=A0Gill) Hi all, Have bought a couple DPM storefront kits in N-Scale to pass the time away and give some new fodder for my recently acquired airbrush. I have gotten a base brick color onto the building and will now attack the sills. Anyone have any reccomendations for painting those small windowsills and trim? Small brush? Painful and tedious masking?
-------------------------------------------------- I use a #00 fine point red sable brush with Polly S paints for the windowsills and trim.
Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:
In HO scale, I use a spray can of red auto primer for the brick color. When the paint is dry I brush on a generous dose of powdered chalk (just plain old school blackboard chalk powdered by rubbing on a bit of window screen. The chalk settles in the grooves between the bricks and makes a very convincing mortar. Do NOT Dullcote the finished building, the Dullcote mates with the chalk dust and makes it turn invisible. N-scale bricks are smaller than HO scale, but I think this technique will work in N as well as in HO. I do the stone window sills and lintels by hand, a fine brush using a stone color. My hand is steady enough that I don't bother masking around the sills.
Just don't handle it much. It's a structure, and as such doesn't get the same level of handling as rolling stock does. You don't have to put it back on the track after a derailment. And, you can always brush on some more chalk. It's worth it, the sadness of seeing a beautiful mortar line job disappear with a shot of DullCote is ugly...
That is for sure. My children were in youth in model railroading and they did a chalk weathering seminar. Both of them did a wonderful job and their cars looked really good. Then we hit it with the clear coat and fhooseh a hours worth of work (each) just vanished.
An alternative to chalk is tempera poster paint. You can get black and white and mix variations in the color for the mortar. The type of paint I'm talking about will dry flat but is softened again with the addition of water so you do as Dave suggested, paint the entire building with the red, orange, or whaterver you want for the bricks and let it cure. Then coat the entire building with the mortar paint and let it dry. Take a damp paper towel and carefully rub off the tempera from the brick faces, leaving it in the recesses. If you're not happy with the results, I suppose you could use a stiff brush and more water to remove the mortar color and start again. Or, just go over it. If you look at a real masonry building there are a lot of variations in the color of bricks, mortar, and weathering.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.