Color and texture, Part II More aesthetic suggestions/Bob Walker I
know of no other hobby where skill, talent and knowledge are indispen- sable from so many venues. A skill- ful model maker who is a talented artist, master carpenter and electrical wizard, has only scratched the surface of what we do. Most of our full time jobs do not require as much of us, as they are narrower in focus. I guess it’s a darn good thing that it’s Fun! Fun...? I'm sure you’ve read here the “%^$#@*!” followed by the query from upstairs: “Are you alright dear?” Let’s just say mostly fun. If they would let me, which they rightly would not, I would title a column @#$%^&* and blood letting. Perhaps it would be more acceptable with some title revision. Last month, I broke bad on a few vi- sually phony TV shows, and some stark- ly colored layouts. Even the brilliant colors of the Colorado Rockies in late September, with so many and varied hues, renders replication to almost im- possible. But we should try anyway. In- stead of bright yellow aspens, make them light, medium, and dark yellow. Throw in two or three shades of green for those leaves that did not yet get the change of color order. Then, add a few shades of orange and even (though rare) some red. The same goes for pines and conifers of all kinds. The greens are multiple in the extreme and perhaps a few brown (dead) ones as well. Sprinkle a lighter shade on the tree-tops to simu- late sunlight. I think you get my drift. Groundcover, locomotives, rolling stock, and buildings all need the same treat- ment. I’ll let the many RMC scenery au- thors expound on this bit further. Let’s concentrate on buildings.
The wide variety of prototype con- struction materials, the variants of wood, masonry and tin, are duplicated in miniature by styrene, wood, card- stock, and plaster. There are hundreds of ways to treat those four modeling mediums to replicate the structures we need. In a perfect world, a layout with 100 buildings, would utilize 100 combi- nations and methods to make each unique. I can think of dozens of ways to make a roof and dozens more ways to construct walls. I can also noodle up a multitude of ways to color those walls and roofs. Let’s just say I can think up 15 of each. Mathematically, that’s 15 times 15 times 15. Yikes! That’s over three thousand combinations. Unless you’re into modeling row houses, that
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Scratchbuilder’s Corner
100 structure layout need use only three percent of those combinations. Throw in all the different modeling media and all those other nuances, and you have tens of thousands of options. See what I mean, variety is not all that hard. I knew an older fellow from my
youth, who had a huge layout. At least it was huge to a teenager who had two 4′×8′s spliced in a “T”. He would let us young folks come over to run trains fre- quently, and we learned a lot about the hobby from him. It seems that he was in love with the Revell enginehouse, a popular kit of the 1960s. It was a very nicely done two stall affair that had in- credible brickwork. He modified these kits into all manner and form of indus- trial buildings, and there were at least ten of the darn things on the layout. They were done in mostly the same col- or and modeling treatment, and there was at least one in each town. Even at our tender ages, we noticed that none of them were used to house locomo- tives. (In his defense, he was modeling
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
a Class I railroad, and had a 12-stall roundhouse.) The overuse of that one kit was painfully apparent. I have found that I have to avoid falling into ruts of my own making. I have too many weathered wood build- ings (even for narrow gauge country) the same shade of medium gray. I need to warm some up, cool some down, darken a few, and lighten a like amount. I have too many buildings with Oregon Rail Supply shingles. They are very nice, but I must have a wider selection of roof treatments. I need to broaden my horizons! Most of my roofs are red, green, blue, brown (rust), or black. I need more colors. In many ways, I need to re-read some of my columns, and take my own advice. On the texture side of the ledger, weathering has a lot to do with the tex- ture of a model. There are always a few buildings that have just gotten a coat of paint and shine like a new penny. The operative word here is “few.” That means that the “many” are in some state of disrepair. Soot streaks down from a chimney, the sun has faded that nice red to a dull pink, and some boards, bricks or windows are broken. Paint peels, flakes off,
crazes, and
fades, and time and Mother Nature conspire to render man’s efforts back
All structures don’t have to be in a state of dilapidation. This well maintained building has an addition. Note how the different colors and building materials add visual interest.
JUNE 2014
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