Mark, Your work is fantastic!! Things look great and I've loved following the progress of your layout! What brand of Pastel Chalks did you use and which colors? John
Looks great. I like the use of chalks for doing the rocks, you are right I also feel that the washes leave too much gloss. Thanks for the updates. JSL
Great work mark. Are you putting the pastels directly on the white casting? Are you going to do an india ink wash or anything to darken the crevices and shadows? I'm personally of the school that says spray the castings black first and then work up the whiter colors from that using washes, that way you get your dark areas a bit more naturally. Not sure that would work as well with chalks, your rocks look great but lack those dark cracks one expects.
Thanks for the compliments everyone. I buy the Prismacolor Nupastel sticks. They're about a dollar a stick for each color, then I just shave the chalk into powder with an xacto knife. Just one stick goes a long way. This idea was interesting so I gave it a go. Unfortunately, once the casting was painted black, as you said, chalks just dont cover it anymore. Perhaps I can get away with a black wash, then apply the pastels. But the problem I always have is that the wash sticks to the rock faces instead of washing down into the nooks and crannys to dry.
On these I've only used Burnt Sienna (or maybe raw? I forget exactly), Rust, and Black, in that order. Next chance I get, I'm going to pick up some more colors in lighter yellow-browns.
What we really need is a way to do voice-overs with the same voice as in the old Movie-tone NewsReels (all Walter Winchell like). "Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Thunder Ridge Mountain railway, on its maiden run through the canyon. Yes, progress has come to this last outpost of the West, with the introduction of modern steam locomotive travel Nothing was spared for the fine men who worked on the railway...." LOL
Progress has slowed down quite a bit, but I did manage to pick up some mis-matched flat latex. The mis-matched color was a very light gray and was easy to re-color to a desired earth/soil color. Best of all, the 99 cent paintbrush I purchased to apply the paint cost more than the quart of paint itself!
Very easily done in any of the video editing software out there. You just need a microphone. Great work, Mark. Can't wait to see you get a brindge in there. It'll be the marquis scene for this layout.
