Creating Scale concrete.

As many people ask me how I make and paint my concrete, I made a post to explain it.


First of all the materials and the basic colors : I use wall putty and lately wood putty over cardboard or cork sheets to create some texture.

 This is the texture I 'm talking about. Expect some warping due to moisture.

 You can scratch the surface with a modelling knife before applying the putty to add variety and make some damage. If it gets too rough you can sand it to places.

There is no perfect color for cement and I use Tamiya acrylic XF-12 J.N. Grey that I believe is very close to the actual thing ( there is a green tint in it ).

Highly dilluted with alcohol or straight from the jar, this type of "painting" is the 1st step also for weathering. Here we prefer brush than airbrush so the coverage of the putty is different from spot to spot.

With white oil that rested on a cardboard for a day or more I make highlights with a rubbing motion ( poor brushes!! )....

 ...and then the same tactic with Naples Yellow Hue oil to give a light tint of yellow at spots. The oils become transparent as they dry so you can correct or add more.

We protect the surface with matt varnish so we can add Raw umber oil wash on spots all around and blend it accordingly. If it turns very dark you can correct it with white again. Each layer you add gives depth to the model. You can add a light wash of Naples yellow on spots that accumulate dust. Here I splashed some dots of raw umber oil and blended some of them that looked too dark.

                                                     How I treat the material: 
                                   We cut 1.5 mm cardboard in stripes to create the stairs.

    White glue.

 

Creating cracks and damage. Adding "cement" lines at the sides.

                                                  After wood putty and sanding.

 This cement was painted in that way. I used cork instead of cardboard and wood putty to make it smoother. A green filter was needed to match to color of the cement stairs, as the latter was made months ago.

"End of the line" derelict diorama finished!!!!

After replacing the fore and aft ladders and railings with rod, Tichy brakes and 1/200 Plastruct ladders ( Unfortunately I didn't have any P.E. of that kind ) which I trimmed at every side to make them thinner, I painted them with a red enamel and treated them the same way of weathering with the rest of the car. They were attached on it with cyano and the caboose was ready. Some branches and foliage at the front ladder to make it look trapped in nature and the retired vehicle took it's part on the dio. Some details here and there, a couple of light passes with mat varnish and photos to follow......

Now I have to put it on a decent base. I will take some overall shots later, with a photo background.

A Container Story

These are the stages of painting my scratchbuilt container for my Dio. First I primed it with Vallejo spray grey primer and put it aside in a dustfree box.

I used as a base color Tamiya mat black, XF-64 Red Brown and Hobby color H47 Red Brown in a random pattern and let them dry thorough so I could start safely the salt way of weathering. 

With a brush I made random spots with water and sprinkled them with salt, both crashed and thin to obtain multiple results. The main color is a bit light - Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue - so I could tone it down a bit with the weathering. With a mixture of that and white I faded it at many spots and let it dry. The next day I removed the salt mask and started washes and pin washes with oils. Raw Umber for grime, Raw and Burnt Sienna for the rust.

I will spray it later with mat varnish to make everything completely flat. It 's a bit over rusty but I wanted it to fit in the whole concept of abandonment. God I love rusty models.