Tuesday, August 16, 2016

More Progress on the Thompson River Canyon Layout: Painting


















Things are moving along on the Thompson River Canyon N scale layout. Painting is well underway; all that’s left is the shoreline and the water, plus the tunnel portal, painting and ballasting the track and adding a few trees and bushes.

By way of reminder, here’s what it looked like a couple of weeks ago when I finished the basic landforms.















And here’s another photo of what it looks like today.















As you can see, I am trying to replicate the more arid and less steep part of the canyon, so the colours are mostly greys, tans and browns. Vegetation is sparse, so there’s just a bit of grass here and there.












This is unlike the other side of the layout (completed last year), which features the steeper and greyer side of the canyon.















As for my painting technique, I use a base coat of grey for most areas (a can of cheap paint from the mis-tint shelf at my local Rona).

For the other colours I use even cheaper dollar store paints. I squeeze the additional colours on to the grey paint, then mix it in, being careful to match the colours beside it.















The trick to a convincing paint job, I have found, is to vary the colours—not to use only one shade. So I use various colours such as grey, tan, white, espresso brown, burnt umber and black.

Anyway, my goal is to have this ready for the Manitoba Mega Train Show at the end of September—I think I’m right on schedule.

To view all the posts about the creation of this layout, including videos, click here: Thompson River Canyon.


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