Friday, February 7, 2014

Half-and-Half

So while I'm now pretty happy with the shape and pattern of the cobbles I've been trying to create I wasn't entirely happy with my first attempt at painting them. While the effect looked quite good it was very dark, and I think would have looked very wrong if used on a larger area, so I've had two more goes at getting the colour right.

I initially wondered if using black as the base coat was the main problem, so I masked off half of the area and re-sprayed using a can of Humbrol's grey primer as you can see on the right of the experiment. Obviously the grey would be too light now for the gaps between the cobbles so I ran a black wash over it to darken the gaps. On the way home yesterday I also picked up a few more useful paint colours and so dry brushed the whole thing (both the newly painted right hand side and the original left hand side). This time I started with RailMatch flint grey (which is quite a bit lighter than the Model Color London grey), and then used three Model Color paints, ivory, tan earth and cork brown. Finally I ran a black wash across the cobbles between the rails to simulate a dirtier area (dropped oil etc.).

I think the left hand side (black base coat) now looks much better. The use of the lighter flint grey and cork brown have improved the contrast between the cobbles and the gaps between them and I'm really happy with how it looks. The right hand side, however, definitely isn't right; the gaps between the cobbles just aren't dark enough and there isn't enough contrast.

So I think I can call this experiment a success. It may have taken me two attempts to shape the clay and two to paint the cobbles, but I'd much prefer to do that now with small amounts of track, clay and paint then on the full layout where having to start over would have been very wasteful in terms of time and money.

6 comments:

  1. I prefer the left hand side. Cobbles are gloomy things.

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    1. Excellent, glad you agree the left hand side is better.

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  2. I'm with Adrian. Mind you rough cobblestones (as compared with the quarried sets) were often very varied shore stones.

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    1. The colouring is actually a bit more varied than it appears in the photos. Dry brushing is great at giving subtly different shades across a rough surface, which means each cobble will be slightly different.

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  3. I agree, it does look much better on the left. I was a bit worried when you mentioned that you were starting off with black, but you have managed to tone it down and get everything nicely under control. One of the things I love about cobbles is the effect of those marginal areas where the grass and soil has gradually smoothed out the surface...and there will also have been repairs to the surface which will add another layer of authenticity, too. This is looking very promising...can't wait to see things develop!

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    1. I must admit the idea of starting with black seemed odd even to me, but given how well Chris Nevard's layouts tend to turn out I though it was worth a shot. I think the nice thing with starting from black is that I can keep on dry brushing multiple layers, and go over areas multiple times without loosing the contrast between the cobbles and the gaps. As you say it tones down the black nicely the more variation I add.

      I must admit, I'm quite looking forward to adding weeds and repaired sections when I get to the actual layout. I'm thinking stone drain channels would also be a nice touch as well.

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