Hello friends!

Almost all layouts have a piece of bare rock somewhere. It's like a mandatory thing almost. I've tried many different methods to create a good look of these rocks, starting with a simple natural gray paper in the mid 70's to 5 layers of acryllic paint on a styrofoam base today. It would be very intressting to learn about the methods you use in combination with a few pictures of the result of course.

I would like to acieve a better result with less work.

Pictures of each step is to come soon...
1st layer: White mat cheap wall paint to cover it all.

2nd layer: A mix of two acryllic colors; Raw Umber and Zink white creates a range of gray-brown colors. I use darker palette in cracks and holes and lighter on open surfaces.

3rd layer: Dry brush all with acryllic zinkwhite to lighten the overall impression, as well as highlighting edges and tops in the mountain structures.



4rd layer: Paint the entire mountain with a highly deluted black acryllic paint. I either ude a brush, or a soft sponge for this. Dry off excessive black paint if required.



5th layer: Paint details with a semi-hard brush using acryllic iron red and/or Umber burnt.



6th layer: Finish off any trackside rock with the airbrush using a thin coat of Pollyscale sand and rust (and then clean the airbrush for half an hour...[xx(] )

I feel this is rather complicated and time consuming, especially for larger areas of bare rocks.

Hi

Thank you for good input!
I understand what you're saying about the paint ruining the structure of molded rocks, but for me it's no probz, because I don't use molded rocks.

Intressting thing about the choise of colors for different scenes. Currently I'm building a layout where as the sandstone color works well with the rest. Do you have some ideas about suitable colors to mix to obtain Gray Granit? Any mix on black makes the rocks turn blue...

- What is Hydro cal?

- Do you add green for the moss after as a separate layer, or do you blend it with the base colour?

I use to cover all with plaster first, but I stopped that since it was extra work. I instead mix a portion of plaster with the mat white color if I want a more rough texture. I actually more often grind down the surfaces and any sharp edges, which I think makes the apperance more realistic.

Hi all,



check out Ross's YouTube video,great stuff!

Dr Dirt

Ross Stewart recently posted some links in a thread about some rock faces he has recently painted and weathered on a friend's layout. You can look at the thread here:- https://www.marklin-user...ault.aspx?g=posts&t=9215

On my layout, because of limited space I used some Sculptamold for rock faces instead of the Woodland Scenics rock moulds (which I had originally intended to do). Sculptamold is a cellulose / plaster mix which has a rough finish when dry. I coloured it with a slate grey wash from the Woodland Scenics earth colours range. Info on Sculptamold can be found here:- http://www.dickblick.com/zz331/04/ and some tips on using it here:- www.northtexasnarrowgaug...d%20Scenery%20Clinic.pdf

Pictures of my layout and rock faces can be found here:- https://www.marklin-user...ault.aspx?g=posts&t=6626

Hehehehe,i think i have more plaster on my layout than the average skyscraper has.

A mountain is a funny thing.Im not saying mine is any good.....but,the texture has to be right.You get mountains and you get mountains.Over here in Africa...our mountains are red and brown.I do not know any other mountain.So naturally i went with brown mountains.

First step.Build the basic shape out of polystyrene off cuts.


We have a product here called "rhinolight".Its a finishing plaster.I then dip strips of newspaper into a fairly runny mix of this plaster and pull it over the polystyrene.I make sure that i get lots of crevices and folds in the paper.It looks like this then


I then make a very dry mix of plaster.You can actually pick it up and form it in your hand.I use a wide big paint brush and paint the plaster with short strokes all over the mountain.This makes it a lot stronger and gives it a very rough texture.



Then the fun starts.Another batch of very very sticky plaster.This time just enough water to absorb the plaster and then a handfull of plaster over the mix to make it tough.This i apply by hand...in thick wads.Now the world is your oyster.You can either take a large flat screwdriver and make rock shapes in it.....


Or you can go haywire and take an old credit card and carve the plaster into shape whilst still wet,


I use burnt umber,burnt sienna,flat earth,light cinnamon,slate gray and black on these.Even splashes of ochre.Little orange here and there and so forth.Im busy with this one.Has about 3 colors in it now.Will get better.

This is also a nice texture

No funny stuff here.Just straight prodded plaster,painted on with a brush.
A last one.I actually finished this mountain today.Just need to prod it and carve it.

I work almost the same as Martin. (Nice work, thanks for sharing!)
-Only I dont paint everything white. Instead, I mix in some acryllic grey and black already when mixing the plaster.
-This is to prevent later damages to the plaster showing up white.
(I dont know if this will weaken the strength of the plaster, but I certainly havent had any problems with that!)

A little "noise" is added randomly (a little dilluted red/yellow/ocker etc.)
Then I wash it all with heavily dilluted acryllic black.
Then I drybrush with white/light grey.

Hi David,
Thanks for the mention.

Martin T,
You rock painting results look very good. I used the spray paint method because I have large areas to cover. I mention at the end of the video that dry brushing can be applied to enhance details that appear closer to the viewer. (see John's layout part 28 under friends on my web page for results on my painting effort) The large area in the SW corner took approx. 2-3 hours to paint.
Thanks for you contribution to the forum.
Ross