hi there,

for my new diorama I've made a bridge. I only have to paint it. Is there anyone who has some suggestion on how i can paint it, what's the best way to get the best result? oil,humbrol....

A second question I have is or the kolloms (don't now the exact wors in english, pillars maybe ) where the bridge is resting on, should it have more strenth (like the X between two pillars?)


plz let me know what you think so far from it

Thomas

I think the Post / Columns look ok...... I wouldn't try driving say a Tiger over it... but for lighter vehicles it looks good.

As for painting... not sure

Hi Thomas, I have made a bridge in this fashion before. My technique is to not paint the wood but to get some white and black ink (such as used in calligraphy) and make a grey color, thin this with water as you would to make a wash, something like 80 percent water to 20 percent ink. Brush this on your wood. you can be as sloppy as you want with this, after a few minutes wipe it away and you will have slightly grey wood. The longer you leave the wash on the darker the wash will make the wood, for real dark wood you can leave it on and not wipe it off. After your wood has dried you now make a wash using paint thinner and burnt sienna oil paints and wash this over the wood. You now have wood as you can see here. If you have any other questions feel free to pm me, I am always glad to lend a hand. cheers Kevin

Hi Thomas,

Good looking bridge there mate, looks strong enough to support light vehicles. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

Kevin, great dio, I remember seeing it before - excellent work sir.

Cheers

Al

I'll second Kevin's painting method. Untreated wood turns grey as it ages. There's a product called weather-it that will gey the wood if you don't want to mess with the ink.

I'm a structural engineer and design bridges, and given the size of your bridge, I don't think you need any x-bracing between the columns.

hehe sorry, i already did the X LOL,

I painted the bridge with normal paint that children would use in school.
A lot of water, light grey, and a towel did the tric.
I'll post some pictues soon with the cobblestone. That's the problem i'm suffering right now. I cant get the color on those streets right. I already painted them about 3times, tried some stuff, but cant get it right.

Anyone got an idea?
At the moment they are dark grey as a base color and i like to work from here to get a neat street


Thx for the comments everybody


Thomas

About the streets. If you are doing a cobblestone street in a semi urban area they will be a mix of gray and brown - gray stones mixed with a light brown dirty color.

If you are using a craft paint you will probably have to dilute it a LOT with water. When I have used this type of paint I really have to get a lot of water in the pigment to get a thin coating. If not you get just an opaque layer of the color, no depth or richness. I would look to vary the mixture of color as you go. Paint a few random stones one variation, then add some pigment, paint some more add some more paint some more etc. This will give you a random color scheme that looks more natural.
Then when the basic color scheme is down you should go back and mix up an even more dilute wash and paint the seams.