India ink in alcohol tends to settle out after awhile. Which can be a good thing. Depending on how much it is mixed or whether the brush is dipped straight to the bottom will depend on how dark the wash is. It does darken down and age things well though from dry brushed wood to painted plastic. It is one of those things to play with some old plaster or scrap painted plastic to get the technique down. It also serves to highlite cracks and seams. It is also possible to add water based colors to plaster to get a base color and diluted india ink on raw plaster tends to give it a gray effect.
Thanks John, I know I have a bottle of Indian ink someplace, I haven’t used it in 10 years and I hope it still is good, but I guess I’ll find out after I find it. After thinking about all the possibilities I’m actually looking forward to trying it out. I think what scared me was a few bad photos I saw of Boxcars weathered with it. The ink was dark and looked like it was accidentally spilled on the roof and just ran down the sides. I don't want that.
The photos in this thread all show some very convincing concrete colors. What makes them believable is the weathering they received. Because concrete has so many hues, getting the base color spot on is a very subjective, and actually forgiving, goal. Therefore, I recommend focusing on texture and weathering to enhance realism. Since realism is in the eye of the beholder, the goal is to convince the eye, during the first few seconds of viewing, that it sees a believable representation of reality, an illusion, so it will accept the illusion and look further to find the highlighted elements, the trains. If, in this case, the finished surfaces call undue attention to themselves through unrealistic detail, texture, and/or color, then the illusion breaks down. So the goal is not to model every element perfectly, but instead to coax the eye toward the intended focal point. Therefore, ancillary details merely need to be believable while the focal point, our trains, should be convincing. To that end, I've used multiple colors for concrete. But I've used generally the same approach for weathering. This view illustrates both elements. Behind the paint pallet, twin concrete coal silos wear Polly Scale Aged Concrete with weathering washes. The bridge under construction here wears some color of interior latex paint, I think named Earl Grey from Lowes. The weathering washes shown here in the pallet are various Polly Scale colors, rust, mud, grimy black, blended and thinned with blue windshield washer fluid (BWWF). If the wash goes on a little heavy, then I can rub some of it off with added BWWF on a brush, even after initial drying. I keep a fan blowing on the structure while I do the washes to see the dried results quickly. Here is the final result of the bridge weathering. I have seen many streaky concrete surfaces on real structures and this is my most believable method so far. Another note about the silo weathering: In some settings, it can be appropriate to show the concrete form lines on silos such as these. In my area, some concrete silo surfaces look fairly uniform and others have prominent lines. Sometimes, lighting and texture make the lines prominent more than does the concrete color. Given the viewing distance and the scale, my silos did not justify the effort to try suggesting the form lines with subtle weathering. Bottom line: India ink may be an effective weathering wash. I suggest washing with multiple colors. It has worked well for me.
Thanks Todd! I think this is what I’m looking for. It really looks good and I’m going to take a drive over to Lowes to buy a small can of “Earl Grey” biggrin:
Don't know if this is anything you're shooting for but I made my concrete with drywall compound mixed with water to thin it out then added pactura black to get close to the color I wanted. When it went down wet it looked really grey but as it dried it lightened up. After it dried completly I added a wash or 2 of india ink and alchaol. Brian
Well Brian that looks really good for just adding black and it does look like concrete alright. I tried something similar a while back. but mine didn't come out so good. I mixed black acrylic paint with premixed spackle and mine came out looking gray. I’m not happy with it at all and if I can’t paint it, I might rip it out and start over again
Indeed I just recommend painting it...don't rip it out. All of my roads are painted white spackle compound. Painting allows weathering with paint and chalk. Chalk on painted spackle is a good weathering technique.
I’ve been talking about buying chalk for years and every time I place an order for something, I forget about it. It’s too bad because I just placed an order last night and was looking for something else to buy so that the shipping didn’t look so bad. Do think Michaels might carry the type of caulk I would need for model railroad stuff. I’ve already spent close to $60 on shipping this month from all the internet purchases I’ve made.
Michaels has the chalk that'll work for you. I'm using an old set of artist's pastel chalks that my wife bought about 10 years ago for a college art class. She barely used them and now I have them for all of my modeling whimsies.
Generally speaking the concrete I've seen in the midwest and west coast can vary quite a bit and so of course you need to color match (the viaducts for example on the raised CN&W tracks through Oak Park Il are quite dark compared to the lock in the initial picture. So dark you could easily not think they were the same product. For a general concretey color though, I would use a light gray (lighter than battleship gray) and an off white. I use Liquitex Basics Titanium (NOT TITANIUM WHITE, JUST TITANIUM) as the off white yellowish color and usually mix my own gray from black and white. Another color to look for which is in the craft acrylics section is a color called sand. It is about the same tone as the Liquitex Titanium. If you want more brownish tones, you can always go to your siennas and umbers. India ink is a great weather tool. Another alternative is powdered tempera paints or if you want to buy premixed, something like the Bragdon industries Weathering powders. I've seen these used to great effect and they come in a wider variety of colors with a built in binder (the tempera has a built in binder too.
