Videos & Photos Videos Layouts Project Railroads Thin Branch Series: Painting rocks

Thin Branch Series: Painting rocks

By Angela Cotey | May 19, 2013

| Last updated on January 11, 2021


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Now that the rocks for our Thin Branch project railroad are in place, it’s time to paint them. David shares an easy 3-step painting technique that produces realistic rock outcroppings.

6 thoughts on “Thin Branch Series: Painting rocks

  1. Re: Thin Branch Series: Painting rocks. Scenery techniques do not age. I have just followed David’s first two techniques (spray painting grey over different types of rocks – Cripplebrush rubber rocks and Woodland Scenics molds – followed by India ink) and it looks great. I had a very large area to cover so I ended up brush painting the grey as my airbrush could not cope. Worse than that my greys were different with each batch as i needed lots of paint. However once i used the India Ink wash it all looked great. I did create a lighter grey wash for my rock fall features. Tomorrow i try to paint highlights.

  2. David,
    Good series and I'm re-watching them 2 years later as I'm preparing to do my own scenery work. Glad I came back to review them, otherwise I would have made terrible mistakes of getting the cart before the horse. Thanks!
    Allan

  3. Thank you for a great series of videos. The problem for us Europeans (I'm from Norway) is to translate US brand names of materials into something we can purchase here. The biggest problem now is the availability of Polly scale paints (also in USA I've heard). Can David or some one else in the editorial staff find equivalent colours for other paints. In Norway Tamya and Valejo the most available paints. I have used much time to find a match for Testor's "tie brown" and all the greys.

  4. it is also possible to achieve good results without an airbrush. troels kirk paints his rock formations flat black and then dry bushes all coloring over the black. i used his techniques a couple of times and was very happy with the results, and it's cheaper than an air brush/compressor.

  5. Very good explanation of the "three step" system.

    On a seperate topic – thinking of airbrushing, how about a couple videos on airbrush cleaning, maintenance and trouble shooting?

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