Painting Plaster Cloth

[adurbin]

Will it work out to paint plaster cloth with flat enamel wall paint. This would be more economical than acrylics considering the size of the area that I have to cover. Does the plaster cloth react badly to the latex?

 

[jbaakko]

I used some of those cheap bottles of acrylics from Wal*mart on mine, and it worked fine.

 

[kenw]

use latex paint and paint it while wet. It will take more paint but the latex will toughen it considerably. it will dry lighter in shade than it appeared when wet.

 

[hamltnblue]

If you're painting an earth or green color, you might want to try woodland scenics earth or green undercoat. You mix it with water to the tone you wan't. One bottle goes a long way.

 

[adurbin]

Thanks Guys. Now the next question is Texture. Does something need to go on top of the plaster cloth (other than molded-formed rocks) to give it a rocky texture, or will the plaster cloth have a believable enough look to pass without putting something on top of it?

 

[GrampysTrains]

Hi Aaron: IMHO, I would cover the plaster cloth with a hard shell, my preference is a mixture of Structolite/Gypsolite, (a base or scratch coat that plasterers use) and Sculptamold. Then paint the hard shell with a thinned latex earth colored paint.

Here's a few in process photos.

The finished scene.

DJ.

 

[nephthyr]

Agree with above post, I give my cloth a nice thin layer of plaster of paris then paint that. Nice work GrampysTrains!! I didn't think of the cardboard web under plaster cloth technique, I used rolled up newspaper balls. Will definitely give that a try!