painting portals?


C

cowboydfk

Member
Hello guy's new to the forums here.I have a question on painting Woodland scenics tunnel portals,whats the best way to get the stone to look real?is there a certain paint I should buy?should I use some washes?It would be great if I could get them to look just like the photo on the box.The portals are the old stone type.I have a good craft store and hobby shop close to get any needed paint.

Thanks
 
I mixed a medium gray, some plain yellow, and some burnt umber from those small plastic vials of acrylic crafts paints you get in the craft section at Wally's. The ratios would be four, 1/2, and one, mixed, and then diluted with about four times as much water. You are making a very heavy wash because you don't really want to 'paint' as much as you want to 'stain' the plaster or hydrocal casting.

I found that one application was lots. Adding another would merely darken the 'stone'.

Next step is to blacken the grooves between the stones. You need a wash for this. You take plain black in acrylic paint, dilute it in a ratio of at least 8/1 with water being the greater component. Dip your brush and wash this solution liberally down the stones starting from the top. Move it down ward and let it settle in all the nooks and crannies. Then leave it, set on its flat back! You want it to settle and dry in the grooves. Not dark enough? Repeat.

Lastly, you must create the soot over the arch and on the side frame. Tale some of that black wash and add a bit more black paint to it. Now you want a heavier wash. Dip a clean brush into this heavier mix, and squeeze most of it out, and then swipe a clean paper towel three or four times to get most of the wash out of the brush. Then you start to blacken up the apex of the arch and the side-walls. Let it dry, and add more to the central dark part, right over the keystone or whatever, to concentrate the soot effect. Keep doing this until you get a look like what appears below.

Important. To get that gee-whiz look to what lies behind the portal, take some time and create a block from view to any wood or white plaster, pink or blue foam may be visible to visitors and yourself. Create a tube of sorts that runs at least five or six incheas back and blacken it thoroughly. Then glue your portal in place.

I painted my portal first and then placed it. At one point I added a bit more wash to darken the soot, but by then the item was hard in place and could be reached and modified with a paint brush easily.

IMG_3422cshadj.png
 
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Wow that looks very good Selector.The one thing I am not good at is mixing paint do you think I could get away with a few washes of this color?it's stone gray from ws.
 
Selector said:
Important. To get that gee-whiz look to what lies behind the portal, take some time and create a block from view to any wood or white plaster, pink or blue foam may be visible to visitors and yourself. Create a tube of sorts that runs at least five or six incheas back and blacken it thoroughly. Then glue your portal in place.
Click to expand...

I've found that aluminum foil, slightly crumpled and painted flat black, formed over the track for 8-9" or even longer if necessary, makes an outstanding "liner" for tunnels at the portal.
 
cowboydfk said:
Wow that looks very good Selector.The one thing I am not good at is mixing paint do you think I could get away with a few washes of this color?it's stone gray from ws.
Click to expand...

Hi. Probably. If it doesn't look so hot, spray it with an India Ink wash a couple of times and see if that improves the stone look.

If you are feeling squeamish about the paints mixing, try this: Get a medium grey, a plain 'yellow', and some 'burnt umber' from Wally's, and squeeze a first gob of the grey into a plastic pudding container or something disposable. It doesn't matter how much it is, as long as you aren't continually squeezing and splutting more into the container. Only enough for the first gob to form and fall.

For the yellow, squeeze the bottle until half a gob protrudes past the opening, and slice your mixing stick through that. That's all you want of the yellow.

Same for the burnt umber, but you could do that paint twice with the slicing trick.

You now have about a teaspoon of paint in the pudding cup. Add three more teaspoons of water, and take about 45 seconds to mix it all up thoroughly. Don't go cheap on your stirring time! (This goes double for mixing two-part epoxies if you ever use my water making method.)

Then do the painting, but trying to spread it more than paint the surface. You want it light, so get it moved around quickly before the plaster soaks it all up. Let it dry, about two full hours in humidity less than 55%.

It it is too light, repeat the application. Let that application dry about four hours. Then do the crevice darkening, and so on....

-Crandell
 
Cowboy, I started using the WS Stone Gray a couple of months ago. My experience with it so far is that it dries to a lighter color than what it looks like in your mixing cup. That's actually ok because you can always darken it but it is next to impossible to lighten it. So for me at least I find it better to work up to the darker color instead of attempting it all in one application. I also discovered different brand castings and different types of plaster we use for scenery will dry to different shades when the exact same dye is applied depending on how much and how deeply they absorb.

After I mix up a cup I apply it to a small area on the back side of the portal or wall and let it dry. That shows me whether it is too light or too dark and I add more tint or more water as needed before coloring the front side of the piece. If you will be doing a portal with wing walls I do them all at once from the same batch so the coloring will be pretty uniform. Even writing down the mix ratio for future use isn't foolproof unless you use a graduated burette or other measuring device to get the same results every time.
 
Kool thread I just bought the WS plaster portal and wing walls but in timber not stone
Doenst make sense wish I had actual wood but looks like it should still work.
Instructions say to use thier earth wash, which I already have.
I was going to test on unseen backside and cut off parts before I painted the fronts
also use charcoal art pencil for black and smear with my finger? Maybe try the Selector technique.
Let me know how yours work out and post pics if you can? I'll do the same.
And thanks to all the veterans for posting, it really helps.
(Funny I already had saved one of selectors pics of his portal from another post as an example LOL, Thanks, looks awesome)
 
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For wood, consider an acrylic called Barn Wood. I'd use that as my base color, then drybrush gray over it to show aging wood. Black to highlight cracks and crevices. Like the other guys said, a little goes a long way as the hydrocal castings soak up paint.
 
Selector, one question, do you seal your castings before you paint or just paint? I've seen sites that recommend sealing before doing any painting.
By the way, that portal looks outstanding, I will be using your method to paint my portals and retaining walls.
 
Dave, I apologize, but my internet service has been down since Monday. :rolleyes:

No, I did not seal the portals. I just made a heavy wash with the shade/colour I wanted and swabbed the rocks all over, ending with the lighter black wash for the sooty look.

Please use the back of your portal for colour swatch testing. The paint is cheap, and I only ever mix maybe one teaspoon and add at least the same amount of water for virtually all paint jobs...more water for a wash. If the swatch looks goofy on the portal back, add something, or discard the batch and try another mix of colours until your eye is pleased. If possible seal the good batch so that you can do another portal.

-Crandell
 
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