How to Paint Realistic Rocks
Martin TärnrotDescription
Modeler Martin Tärnrot is back with another video on improving model railroad scenery. In this video, Martin will demonstrate how to paint realistic rock sides, specifically those that have a lot of iron in them. The prototype is a rock side with streaks of reddish mineral iron. He begins by casting these rock sides with rubber molds and filling them with Woodland Scenics Hydrocal. Raw umber paint is more neutral, while the burnt umber has more of a reddish tint, which is preferable in this project. Martin makes the paint very thin by adding in water and brushes it on the rock with a brush.
To add more detail to the model railroad scenery rock, Martin uses smaller brushes and different colors. He uses a yellow, white, and burnt umber. Beginning with the yellow, he adds in spots by observing the prototype and repeats with the red and dark brown. For a wash, he mixes the original color with the burnt umber, a touch of black, and a lot of water. He adds this mix to the top of the rock and sprays it down with water to float over the surface. The last step is adding a layer of light brown, which Martin dry-brushes with white to highlight the contours of the rock. For more on model railroad scenery like creating rock scenery or casting rock structures, visit the Model Railroad Academy archives.
Hello and welcome to a Model Railroad Academy video. In this video, we will paint rock sides and we will focus on the rock sides with a lot of iron in them. So reddish, iron, mineral-type rock sides. This is what our prototype looks like. It's a rock side with the high content of iron.
I typically cast these type of rock sides using rubber molds and fill them with Woodland Scenics hydrocal. Once dry, they look something like this. You may have noticed that there are two umber brown colors available, raw and burnt. The raw umber is more neutrally brown, whilst the burnt umber is more reddish brown. Therefore, in this project, burnt umber is preferred.
The paint should be mixed really thin. Use water as a thinner. In this example, I use a paint brush, but for larger surfaces, I would use a flower sprayer. Once dry, it will look something like this. Now it's time to paint some details.
Before that, I set aside some of the paint in a separate container. The colors I use for the detail painting is yellow, white, and burnt umber. I'm starting off with the yellowish details. applying them accordingly, looking at the prototype, and then I continue with the red and then, lastly, some dark brown areas. Yeah, I think this is about it.
Now it's time to make a wash. For this, I mix the original color with more burnt umber. Add a lot of water and a portion of black to get a darker shade of this color. Again, if you're working with a larger surface, I would typically apply this wash using a flower sprayer. Here instead, I'm adding it on the top of the rock side and then spraying water isopropanol on top, and it will float over the entire surface.
And this is what it looks like when it has dried. Now only one step remains, and that is a layer of light brown, which will be dry-brushed to highlight the contours of this rock side. I wipe most of the paint off on a piece of paper and then dry-brush until the contours of the rock side stands out a bit. Yeah, it starts to look good. All right.
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great demonstration, Curious of where to go get the rock formations to paint.
Mr. Tarnrot, you have some awesome skills! I have watched many of your video's here on MRA, and on you You Tube Channel. I would just like to Thank You Very Kindly for sharing your knowledge with everyone. In today's world, I think it is important to share knowledge so the skills are not lost to time. Unlike the days before the Internet, if you didn't take someone or a group of people under your wing and teach them, the knowledge was lost. So many old time skills have been lost due to time, so I can't Thank You Enough for you sharing you knowledge for future generations. Instead of rediscovering them, they have a chance to be improved upon in years to come. John