for all you who use drywall (or something similar) to make your buildings, um, i'm kinda having a hard time painting it, i'm using enamels, and its not coming out the way i want it to, its good, but not good enough.

so here is what i'm asking
what kind of paint do you use?i'm using enamels as i said, and maybe its the type of paint and the material that dont go together?

the drywall soaks it up, which i expected cuz its got so much holes in it (i took the paper outside off) then i just paint over it, and it still soaks it up, i'm about to use up more paint than i would have liked just painting a wall to a decent sized building. so PLEASE give me some input on this,

mech

p.s. do you think that if i put a coat of elmers glue on, let it dry, then paint that it would work better

I always prime with automotive primer the black or the grey and I use the cheap craft acrylics, I had not had a problem with it getting soaked up. did you prime it first? Cheers Kevin

Mech-Maniac,

Don't use your enamels to paint your drywall buildings. You will use up all your paint in no time and that paint is expensive. Do yourself a favor and go to an arts and crafts store like Michaels' or A.C. Moore and get a bunch of their acrylic paints. I get mine at A.C. Moore for about 80 cents a bottle (50 cents on sale). Those are pretty good size bottles and they have a million different colors to choose from.

Good luck.

BTW, with these paints you wouldn't have to prime any of your drywall buildings.

ok

no, i didnt prime my buildings (didnt think i had to prime drywall lol)

and acrylics, never thought they would work, figured they would be a bit similar on drywall, and how do you guys paint, brush or airbrush, i use a cheap crafts brush, thanks a bunch

Finally, someone else who uses drywall! I've been using nothing else for years. I don't "paint" it or seal it cause it kind of takes away from the natural cement look. I've had good results with Polly-S paints, either Concrete, Grime, Dust or a combination, applied in a series of washes till I get the effect I want. I've also used pastels scrubbed in with a toothbrush. Hope this helps.

Art

Drywall? Is that like gypsum board?? A paper covered plaster board used to build a wall in a home?

Doesn't that make the diorama way heavy??

I use thinned latex paint to seal a wall before wallpapering to save on glue. The plaster is porous as heck and needs to be sealed so as not to soak up whatever is being done to it.

But what do you use drywalling for in a diorama?? The thinnest board I can get here over in Sweden is 6mm (almost 1/4 inch) thick. In 1/35 scale it would be 21 scale centimeters (about 8.25 inches)...

COTTAGE-your question about the drywall.. what you do is soak it in hot water for a bit, then scrape the 'paper' stuff off until you have whats left on the inside, its surprisingly pretty light, then you just shape your walls accordingly, i use it for ruined buildings cuz its wartime, so everything is pretty much blown up, so its not that thick, shave off a lot and then but rubble next to it

ART-i think we might be twins lol, i also use poly scales on SOME, i've been experimenting with diferent colors and color mixtures lately,

Mech:
Try the layers of wash. It does soak in, but eventually you'll get a weathered effect. Also, try a wash of dirty thinner, too.

Cottage:
Yes, drywall is plasterboard, and it's great for other things besides buildings, like streets (with or without sidewalks) bridges, bunkers, road markers, etc. It can be sanded, drilled, painted, washed, pasteled, etc.You can even use the broken pieces for rubble, and the best part is it's free! Just visit any construction site and ask if you can pick up the scrap. You should get enough to last for a long time. As for the size, it's close enough to scale where you can't notice a variation. I did a long post on this some time ago if you want to check it out. If you can't find it let me know and if you want I'll go through it with you step by step.

Art

On the gypsum buildings you can buy from various manufacturers, I have found that using the cheap craft paint from hobby lobbly or michaels crafts stores works great when you dilute or thin the paint down 50- 50 or 60 - 40 (paint/water). It puts a nice base coat on the surface. When you use pastels on the building later, I notice that allows for a smoother brush stroke and greater uniformity with the brush storkes when applying the pastels. It is a lot easier to apply other washes and dry brushing on top of the orginal base coat.

fiveO

i would like to buy some of those buildings from the manufacturers, but they do look pricy from what i can build myself, is it all worth buying them, or should i just stick with scratch building. and with the buildings you can order from companies, how easy do they weather, and is it easy to break them up and put a few holes in them? (such as bullet holes and shell hit holes)

thanks deuce

acrylics are awsome! they have some at home depot for real cheap and they work good, GET SOME!

I do my building buying on eBay. I want to save money, and some times that means passing up a great looking building, because some times the items are at or near full retail, you have to be carefull. As far as working with the buildings that are gypsum, it is fairly easy to put together, easy to dirty up, make battle damage. Take a look in my photo gallery to see a building I did from Plus Model for Overlord 2004. I just took a knife and traced deepened the cracks, brick, doors....Brent

Agreed -and be aware that the shipping on some of these heavier units can wind up costing as much as the building itself! In the early days, you could by Verlinden and Custom Dioramics kits for $5 - 12 online - what a great deal. Now however, with the addition of resin and etched metal parts,the kits are starting to creep into the $30+ price range.

While I sell kits on our website, I build most of my stuff using BalsaForam - if you have never tried it, go read the article on our website (look under the "inventory" section.

The previous remarks are correct about ebay, you have to be aware of both the price and the shipping as they can easily add up to more than what you would pay at an online site. This is particulary true of Hometown Hobbies. Bill Wolfe has great prices on the Verlinden and Custom Dioramics building sets and is great to deal with.

Keith