Hi everyone, I don't think i have ever posted here but have been a long time viewer. I need some help on a dio i'm working on. First of i have been building models 28+ years, 24 of those in the US Army and have never built a dio. I wanted to do this first one as a simple one to get some of the techniques down but some how I'm just not satisfied with it so far. I think the actual layout is good, Problem is painting/painting of the road, the color just is not right. And i can'nt seem to get the stone wall a good color. I've tried differnt shades of grays but still? Would appreciate any help and comments.
One more request, how do post photos here?
Thanks
Don

Each member gets some gallery space so that's where you post images, then you put links in the thread to the gallery.
Click Photos link in the tool bar above.
Log into the gallery, click My Photos on the top left.
Click upload link.
Browse to select your image(s).
Upload.
Then view, click the photos (two IE's or tabs makes it easier), open the photo and right click it, select Properties, copy the image name http://.......
Start a thread
click the [ img ] tool under the thread text box above the face icons.
paste the image name between the [ img ] and [ / img]

Now - painting the road and wall. Get a nice base coat down, then on the wall blend a few alternate color variations of the base color and pick out blocks or bricks or areas to vary the overall colors of the wall. Make it random and mix and remix the color to vary that as you go.
The road if its cobbles or bricks - same as the wall. If its a dirt road then get a good base coat and try oil washes in browns and dark browns.
You can use oil washes on the wall too.

oil wash explanation - get some oil paints and lots of thinner. In a cup/container mix a small dot of oil paint mix (mix a touch of browns and white and maybe a bit of green) into the thinner. Then apply the thin wash all over the road. remix (add a touch more color) and rewash. Vary the thickness of pigment and the areas of the wash.

To even everthing out you can add pastel dust to the whole thing. Get some chalk pastels (not oil pastels). Sand some down into a small cup/container. You can mix these to to get a variable color. Then use a soft brush and tap on a bit of pastels then brush them on to the diorama. Go light at first, then add dust in high dirt areas. Go for even coverage on the whole diorama.

test

Another Test

Well, I can't see the photos (sometimes is very frustrating when uploading doesn't work, believe me, I've been there )...

However, regarding your question on the road paviment color, if you are trying to depict a modern one, I would go with a mix of about 60% ivory white, 30% matt black, and 10 percent of a greyish green.
That would do the trick for the paviment.
Later, with weathering and dust, it would turn a like like color.

Hope this helps you.

Cheers.
Pablo

Images... sorry about that



This looks like just with out the spaces
[ img ] http://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/15133/finals1.JPG [ / img ]

[ img ]http://gallery.kitmaker.net/19815/thumbs/DSC00624.JPG[ /img ]
One thing I see in the images you tried to post - see the thumbs portion of the name - you need to click on the 'thumb' sized image and get to the biggest image (the page where there is only one image)

Lets see if this works

Now for suggestions on the road.
Add some lane streaks where the road gets packed down more and darker.
You'll need to streak the brown color out on to the road where vehicles coming off the dirt to the pavement/pack drop dirt.
The wall isn't bad, mabye some grasses and vines going up the wall.

Hi Don,
Welcome to the site mate!!
You have made some great progress so far.
Scott has given some great ideas so far, and plenty of options to choose from!!
Other elements such as sun flowers etc. can be added to the front of the wall, giving something else to the scene.
These companies
Kamizukuri have some excellent foliage products, along with Joefix-Studio .Both companies should have a supplier to a LHS in your neck of the woods.
You could of course make your own foliage from silver birch trees as some of the other members do occasionally.
During Fall is the best time to start making a collection from the nymhs that fall off on to the ground from the Silver Birch.
You could also add a poster to the front of the wall, and your own home made sign post is yet another element to consider.
Robert Blokker aka Faust has an excellent feature for making sign posts and fences which can be seen
here .
One last tip and it's often over looked and that is to look through the feature section of the site, there is a stack of ideas and techniques to be found.
I wish you a lot of success with your diorama,
Shay