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Rail control, HELP WANTED


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Note ***first ever scratched building***

 

Hi guys. Alongside my vehicles I will be displaying various buildings. 

I scratched this one from plasticard and have given it a VERY VERY rough coat of grey/green & some awful attempts and making it look like concrete!

 

the interior I'm happy with except for the later addition of "glass".

 

im hoping I can fall on some of the knowledge of you guys here for some help completing the textures and colours of concrete 

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Tin roof is just placed on ATM with lots still to do there, 

 

thank you all in advance. 

 

No help or criticism will be treated as negative,😀😀😀

Edited by Steve_farrier
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Hi Steve,

I've scratched a few buildings in the past couple of years, the first couple for a street scene where I used sheets of plastic card, and plaster of paris for two buildings in my current diorama 'The ever evolving diorama'. If you take a look at the latter WIP, you will find my methods fairly close to the start of the WIP and later on about page 25 I think?

 

But looking at your photos and understanding that you used Plasticard for construction, here's what I will say:

 

Firstly, forget what you've done so far. Get some plasticard and remake the door and window surrounds. You want them to stand proud of the surface by 2mm.

 

Now, the best thing for a concrete finish is to cover the walls with very fine grade sandpaper.  First though, make plain paper patterns to fit the walls, bending some around the corners where possible (Concrete tends not to have seams or joins at the corners) When you have the paper patterns sorted, you can then transfer the patterns to the sandpaper.

Glue the sandpaper to the walls using neat PVA (white glue/wood glue) Make sure to smooth down the sandpaper, getting rid of any air bubble or blobs of PVA. In bad cases you can stick a pin through the lump and squeeze the glue/air out. Mop up any oozed glue with a damp sponge/cloth.

 

Let the whole thing dry and set solid. Be aware that the PVA will take a while to cure as it is sandwiched up against a non-porous surface. You could leave it there and then paint, but.......

 

 

The next process is optional, but gives a more realistic finish.

 

Mix up some Polyfila, or plaster of Paris, fairly thin, and using an old brush, brush it all over the sandpaper to a thickness of about 1mm. Don't worry about getting the surface completely smooth. When that is completely dry, you can then smooth the surface using sandpaper. You want to sandpaper small areas to a smooth finish just short of the underlying sandpaper, but in some places continue until sandpaper meets sandpaper, and then stop and move on to the next area. The finish will be smoothish with rougher patches randomly spread about, which is what you want for concrete IMHO.

 

Whichever option you choose, the painting is the same. Paint the sandpaper white and let it dry. Best use an airbrush or a very old brush.

From this point onwards, KEEP THE WALLS VERTICAL DURING ALL FURTHER APPLICATIONS AND DON'T APPLY ANYTHING ON THE HORIZONTAL AXIS.

Mix up a thinned light grey and using a broad brush apply the grey wash in QUICK up and down strokes. Don't be too fussy, a bit of colour variation here and there is a good thing. Again, let that completely dry. Continue to apply washes of varying shades of grey and also very thinned sand colours, letting each dry before applying the next. Once you are happy, revisit the rougher areas with the exposed sandpaper and apply some darker washes in just those areas. Let some of the wash trickle down the walls. Once you are happy with this you can give the whole lot a coat of gloss varnish and apply an all over darkest wash and let that dry. In places at the bases of the walls you can use a 'musky' green wash to simulate moss/mold/lichen. Then give everything a spray with matt varnish.

Finally, you can dry brush some of the rougher areas and any corners/edges with a slightly lighter colour, just to bring out those details.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Edited by Badder
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Thank you @Badder!! That was far more indepth than I could have hoped for. 

 

When i originally started this build I did try plaster of Paris.. and stuggled to make it stick... but the idea of the sandpaper certainly gives me more food for thought! Thanks so much. 

 

Ill post some updates in a few months as I've shelved this one for a moment whilst I focus on my SU85. 

 

This piece is savable thankfully 😂😂

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3 hours ago, Steve_farrier said:

Thank you @Badder!! That was far more indepth than I could have hoped for. 

 

When i originally started this build I did try plaster of Paris.. and stuggled to make it stick... but the idea of the sandpaper certainly gives me more food for thought! Thanks so much. 

 

Ill post some updates in a few months as I've shelved this one for a moment whilst I focus on my SU85. 

 

This piece is savable thankfully 😂😂

My pleasure, glad to help.

 

For my latest buildings I made some entirely from plaster of paris. I took plastic kit walls (miniart) and made moulds with latex, then cast them in plaster. Two walls back to back will give you brick and stonework on both sides. I cut up various casts to make ground floor and upper floor walls, gable walls, and ones with windows and doorways. Of course, a plaster of paris wall is easy to turn into a 'concrete' wall and cut and file to shape, but as you have plasticard walls I believe my suggestion is the best option.

 

Good luck with the SU85, I shall have a gander as you progress.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Edited by Badder
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