The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[sdrees]

Tom,

I think you are getting a hell of a deal. And it is only Diet Coke and not beer.

[ACL1504]

Tom,

I think you are getting a hell of a deal. And it is only Diet Coke and not beer.

Steve,

I certainly agree with that.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I have an area that I needed to use a fence to separate the yard tracks and the roadway.

I used the plastic Central Valley fence assortment and chose the wooden fence.

I can't really say I'm pleased with the results but I'll share them anyway.



I painted the fences with Floquil Primer. I decided to try some new, different for me that is, weathering acrylics from AK Interactive. They were a little pricey but I used a gift card so the blow wasn't to bad.



When the primer cured, I started the weathering. These are the four colors I chose for the fence weathering process.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I put a few drops of each of the four colors on my homemade paint palette.




I randomly painted a few boards with the burnt umber and then blended in some light gray.





I then blended in some medium brown.




Continued in a few.

[Janbouli]

Strange that you used plastic for a wood fence Tom, of course you can make plastic look like wood , but making wood look like wood is a bit easier 

[ACL1504]

I then blended in some medium gray and let the fence dry. When dry I applied a heavy coat of Hunterline Creosote Black A&I mix.



The fences were then installed next to the roadway. I also added a few signs. I'll go back and cut off some of the individual boards to make the fence look a little more "ratty" or unkept in appearance is you will.



To paint and weather 7 feet of plastic fence, six inches at a time, the results are a bit under whelming.

[ACL1504]

Strange that you used plastic for a wood fence Tom, of course you can make plastic look like wood , but making wood look like wood is a bit easier 

Jan,

You, of course, are absolutely correct. I was trying to save time but you get what you pay for. I should say, I got what I paid for. I'm quite confident I'll be replacing the plastic with real strip wood down the road.

Tom

[ACL1504]

The several hours of work to paint/weather the plastic was pretty much a waste of time. Not much difference in the out of the package fence and the painted fence.

[ACL1504]

One of the building in the photo backdrop is a closed business with the windows boarded with plywood. Weeds are growing around the bottom of the structure. To give it a little more depth, I added weeds to the edge of the photo and onto the layout.







I still have plans to weather the road. Just not enough hours on my seven Saturday week.

[Raymo]

Hope that isn't the local Pepsi bottling plant that's boarded up! That might explain your supply problem.

[deemery]

I know of two other really good tutorials on painting plastic to look like wood.  One was in the NG&SL Gazette back in Jul/Aug '82, and is summarized here:  http://members.shaw.ca/brown3980/AcrylicsPainting+Aging.htm


The other was on Harold Minsky's Pacific Coast Airliner website, but I can't find the link.  Maybe someone has the link (or has a copy.)  His approach was similar using acrylics, but it didn't use the scratch-off approach of the original NG&SL Gazette article (which used Floquil.)


dave

[jerryrbeach]

Here is the link to Harold's article on making styrene look like wood.  http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/weathered_plastic/

[Erieman]

Good Morning Tom,

By now you don't want to hear anything about painting/ weathering plastic fence, BUT.  I am not a real fan of plastic as you know. Some time ago we sponsored a contest of modifying a plastic structure. I chose to weather the structure and was quite pleased with the results. I was trying to achieve a weathered look and after some brief experimentation, I came up with the following dry brushing technique. It is quick and easy and the results are not bad, if I don't say so myself. If you are interested, give me a call or if anyone else wants to know, let me know and I'll post a thread on it.

Wonderful looking progress on the layout. Keep up the great work.

Frank / Erieman

[ACL1504]

Hope that isn't the local Pepsi bottling plant that's boarded up! That might explain your supply problem.

Danno,

Fortunately, it was the Cocoa Cola distribution location.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I know of two other really good tutorials on painting plastic to look like wood.  One was in the NG&SL Gazette back in Jul/Aug '82, and is summarized here:  http://members.shaw.ca/brown3980/AcrylicsPainting+Aging.htm


The other was on Harold Minsky's Pacific Coast Airliner website, but I can't find the link.  Maybe someone has the link (or has a copy.)  His approach was similar using acrylics, but it didn't use the scratch-off approach of the original NG&SL Gazette article (which used Floquil.)


dave

Dave,

I appreciate the information. I'm not thrilled with the plastic fences but they will do for now.

Tom