I've had good success making rock formations from Aluminum Foil molds, and am ready to paint them. What methods do you use? Thanks.
I paint all my landscape, including rock molds with the basic earth color first. After drying I use craft paints available at craft stores such as Michaels, etc. and either dry brush color onto the rocks that is appropriate to the area you intend to model or paint on streaks of color consistent with the color of strata you wish to represent. A spray bottle of "wet" water is helpful to blend the colors better. I finish up by applying a diluted earth color wash to blend and reduce unrealistic contrast. Mike Cannone San Diego, CA
Hi Bruce. I paint my rocks (and other objects) in two different ways, depending on how the rock "feels" to me. Both work well. 1st method, painting "out," darkest to lightest. You're going to be painting from dark to light, painting your darkest colors first, working out to the lightest. For this example, say you'll be using 4 colors: Charcoal gray, Medium gray, Light gray, and White. - Prime rock using gray primer. - Next paint rock a nice, dark color. I try to avoid black, and have been using dark burnt umber for yellowish, tan, and whitish rocks. For gray rock I use charcoal (a real dark, rich gray). I'd probably use dark burnt umber for reddish rocks too. - Dab and dry brush on your next color lightest color (medium gray). Be careful, dry brush and scrubbing is better than "gloping" the paint on. You want to keep all those crevices, hollows, cracks, etc. nice and dark, and not cover them up. - Dab and dry brush on the next lightest color (light gray). Again, be careful and just hit the highlights. - Dry brush on the lightest color (white), just hitting the highlights. It should look pretty good by now, but- - Make a nice, THIN wash of your dark color. Apply it over your rock. This will soften and blend all your colors together, giving a more subtle effect. 2nd method, Base - Shade - Tint: - Prime rock using gray. - Paint rock your base color. - Shade rock (darken it) using a wash of your darker color. - Dry brush/dab the highlights using your lighter colors. - Cover rock with THIN dark blending wash. These methods work on anything- buildings, vehicles, rolling stock, etc. Check my photo's (link below) for an example (go to the Bridge Abutment Demo section). I'll be posting more pictures in the weeks to come. http://community.webshots.com/user/elpasomark Hope this helps. Take care, Mark [ 02. October 2002, 17:26: Message edited by: El Paso Mark ]
Unless you are modelling the desert during the dry season, don't forget to add a few spots of green to represent lichens, small plants growing out of the cracks, etc. You might want to stick a few pieces of ground foam here and there to add to the effect. Frank Campagna
I know this is a little late, but I just came across this post. I make my rocks from plaster of paris or hydro cal. Now, I bought a deck stain and paint all my rocks with this one color, the variety of colors it changes when it hits the plaster is amazing. Sometimes it's gray, then brown, then tan, then black. It becomes darker if you dip the rock into the paint, it becomes lighter if you spray it on. I like the effect of brushing it on. One of the nice side effects is that, even though all the rocks are different colors, you have the feeling they are all related geologically. I'll try and have some pics soon. What we did was buy some small sample cans of different colors and tried them out. Some colors just 'painted' the rock, others seeped in and stained the rock. BTW minwax stain, a very popular brand does not work as well as the brand I'm using. The brand is called Superdeck Transparent Stain (I think that 'transparent' is what makes it work so well) the actual color is Canyon Brown. Hope this helps
