Weathering and Paint on Tuolumne Forks
Bob BrownDescription
Tuolumne Forks is an O&3 freelanced narrow gauge logging and mining railroad. Bob Brown is the editor and publisher of the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. This layout combines mining and logging with a tourist line. The operation follows the Lake Tahoe Railway and Navigation Company’s transport of tourists from Workshop to the Lake Tahoe Resort. The railroad is famous among narrow gauge enthusiasts like Bob Brown.
There are many weathering and painting techniques to help unify your entire layout. Bob Brown keeps his Tuolumne Forks Model looking clean and unified by frequently wiping, staining, spraying, and dusting all of his equipment and tracks. Brown also uses a lot of chalks, but he still believes that the wiping and staining is the most important thing to frequently do to your layout.
Bob Brown has exquisite paint on his Tuolumne Forks model. Brown says that to achieve a look that appears like worn paint, simply brush egg tempera onto any surface—it looks just like peeling paint! The more water you apply to the brush, the less the paint sticks, therefore creating a wonderful effect of peeling paint. This technique is so easy you can’t mess it up!
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The layout is beautifully weathered. Everything fits together. There's nothing that seems out of place. Nothing stands out and says, hey, here I am. It all blends. What is, what is the technique for making a layout seem to, seem so unified? Well, I think, again, it's back to this wiping and staining technique and then I over spray almost everything. I spray my track, which is not done that commonly which blends it in. And everything is dusted and sprayed. A lot of the scenery, the rocks and and when it all comes together, nothing does stand out. Or use chalks. A lot of chalks. Yeah. It's a lot of over spray, a lot, mostly chalks but I think, I think the wiping and the staining is the big thing. You have a very interesting peeled paint effect. Hmm, Yes. I have to really give credit to Lane Steward. Who was one of the authors and, is definitely his idea. And he wrote it up in our last issue of the Gazette. Which is the kind of technique stuff, you will get in the magazine. But Lane came up with some egg tempera. And if he found that if he just brushed egg tempura onto a model, it looked like peeling paint. This is quite easy to apply. I've put a little bit of water in the brush. This is a urethane kit, that's been sprayed with a focal gray primer. And you notice as it brushes down it doesn't, stick all the way it bubbles up. And the more water you put on the less it sticks therefore creating a wonderful effect of peeling paint. Notice again, it's showing how easy this is to do and you just can't miss with the technique. It's wonderful. Here's the completed shed with the egg tempera you know, peeling paint, and here's a layout. Here's a building on my layout also painted in the same way.
What is egg tempura?