04-11-2009, 03:39 AM
In the next step I divert a bit from Westcott's original method. I paint the whole hard shell with a basic landscape color. Again I used cheap acrylic paints (light browns, grays, ochre, red...), mixing them while I painted. The basic color of the landscape (rocks, soil...) in the CO rockies certainly is different from the colors in the Ozarks or in Maine. Don't try to economize: Use plenty of paint.
(BTW: At the same time I painted the free space between the tracks leading to Ronville. Protect all tracks beforehand with masking tape!)
Back to Linn Westcott: Now the fun of zip texturing starts! Realistic looking scenery literally in minutes!
The basic idea is to mix of one or several dry powdered color pigments (also called 'earth colors' like raw and burnt umber, raw and burnt siena, lamp black (VERY messy, use VERY sparingly, if at all!), chrome green and yellow, ochre...) with a dry powdered spackling compound or PoP. You can keep these color mixtures (say one or several soil colors, grass colors...) in separate glass jars for years!
First you wet - and I mean: WET - the painted hard shell with wetted water. Then, with a spoon you pour a small amount of your coloring powder into a strainer. Then, holding the strainer above the wetted shell and tapping your finger against it, you start 'snowing' down the texturing color-PoP mix onto the shell. It will suck up water from the wetted hard-shell, the PoP starts to harden and thus secures the pgments in place.
In flat places this builds up to a somewhat crumbly looking surface, in steep places it clings to the tiniest ledges in a most natural way - namely exactly there, where soil or grass would stay in a real landscape, too.
You can even simulate natural erosion by spraying water over the landscape AFTER the application of zip color powder, washing down a part of it in very realistic rivulets. Then you can add more color etc. etc.
Just experiment around a bit - I assure you, it's great fun. And it is quick: In a few minutes you cover several square feet of landscape.
15. The painted hard shell around and above the tunnel portals. In my case I achieved a mottled look with an overall color impression of a light brown with a yellowish hue.
16. A first layer of zip texturing around the portals, using a pigment mixture of raw and burnt umber. I always start with a medium dark grayish brown (soil).
(Color powder which gets onto the 'concrete' of the tunnel portals can be washed down with a wetted brush. BTW, this adds a nice weathering effect of the concrete!)
17. Here I added lighter and darker green zip-texturing powder mixtures. Here and there I put a very small amount of ochre into the strainer and dropped a single tap onto the grass. This gives the illusion of patches of yellowish flowers in the grass.
Of course, you can add more structure to the ground anytime with Woodland Scenics ground foam etc. (This will be done here when I add the structure above the portals.)
(BTW: At the same time I painted the free space between the tracks leading to Ronville. Protect all tracks beforehand with masking tape!)
Back to Linn Westcott: Now the fun of zip texturing starts! Realistic looking scenery literally in minutes!
The basic idea is to mix of one or several dry powdered color pigments (also called 'earth colors' like raw and burnt umber, raw and burnt siena, lamp black (VERY messy, use VERY sparingly, if at all!), chrome green and yellow, ochre...) with a dry powdered spackling compound or PoP. You can keep these color mixtures (say one or several soil colors, grass colors...) in separate glass jars for years!
First you wet - and I mean: WET - the painted hard shell with wetted water. Then, with a spoon you pour a small amount of your coloring powder into a strainer. Then, holding the strainer above the wetted shell and tapping your finger against it, you start 'snowing' down the texturing color-PoP mix onto the shell. It will suck up water from the wetted hard-shell, the PoP starts to harden and thus secures the pgments in place.
In flat places this builds up to a somewhat crumbly looking surface, in steep places it clings to the tiniest ledges in a most natural way - namely exactly there, where soil or grass would stay in a real landscape, too.
You can even simulate natural erosion by spraying water over the landscape AFTER the application of zip color powder, washing down a part of it in very realistic rivulets. Then you can add more color etc. etc.
Just experiment around a bit - I assure you, it's great fun. And it is quick: In a few minutes you cover several square feet of landscape.
15. The painted hard shell around and above the tunnel portals. In my case I achieved a mottled look with an overall color impression of a light brown with a yellowish hue.
16. A first layer of zip texturing around the portals, using a pigment mixture of raw and burnt umber. I always start with a medium dark grayish brown (soil).
(Color powder which gets onto the 'concrete' of the tunnel portals can be washed down with a wetted brush. BTW, this adds a nice weathering effect of the concrete!)
17. Here I added lighter and darker green zip-texturing powder mixtures. Here and there I put a very small amount of ochre into the strainer and dropped a single tap onto the grass. This gives the illusion of patches of yellowish flowers in the grass.
Of course, you can add more structure to the ground anytime with Woodland Scenics ground foam etc. (This will be done here when I add the structure above the portals.)
Boss of the Trim Creek & Western RR (H0 & H0n3)
Running through the hard-shell mountains, not around them!
Running through the hard-shell mountains, not around them!