Hello Chaps. I got a few questions on the cobble stones from my KVI base that was shown a while back, so, as Im making a similar base again, I will show in-progress images as I go along, on how I paint them.

Firstly the KVI base ... sorry theres no images of the base without the KVI.



The new base will be for the Italeri water truck ( see here ). The bottom part is a suitably sized photo frame. The sides are 2mm balsa wood, just to give some height. As I need a slightly longer base, I had to go wider also (not spoiled for choice at my local shop!!), so I decided to add Italeris wall and gate set for some detail and fill up the extra width. The cobble stones are a Kincali item. Building this base was very quick .. one of the biggest advantages of Kincali items.

The walls were air brushed using tamiya colours and the brick detail was hand painted using humbrols. The brown area will have vegation at a later stage. The cobble stones were sprayed tamiya dark grey ... a good base colour. The bricks were then quickly hand painted with humbrols .. with brick red, light grey, flesh, ochre, prussian blue, olive drab and some mixes of the above colours. Some bricks were left un-painted, leaving the dark grey to show through as yet another colour. No need to be perfect .. just block them in quickly. The results can be seen below ..





Trust me, this is not as scary as it looks now
The choice of colours is immaterial. The idea is to get different tones so the more variance the better. As I dont have much time, this way suits me as it uses short steps every day. Firstly this is all dry brushed with a very light grey (could be buff, white, etc). Then each day after it recieves a wash, each time lessening the mad effect above and coming closer to a realistic cobble colouring.
Heres an image after dry brushing...



Over the next few days, this will recieve a heavy wash until I feel it looks OK. Its possible, as the colours start to blend, I will do another dry brush stage to bring out the brick detail. The overall colour will be a grey/green or grey/brown .. depending on how it looks after the intial washes. More updates to come

Wow, great Frank:

Oz appreciates the Step By Step (SBS) pix and the
explanation of how you apply the Humbrol enamels
and then the washes over that. I presume the washes
are acrylic as that will not attack the enamel base coat?

Love your color choices and how the painting on the
wall and the color choices THERE so effectively
compliment the colors you chose for the individual
cobblestones. Real life, nature, is grahically full of color
and it's apparent that you, full well know that, Frank. I
also like the choice of a fuel truck on the base instead
of say, a King Tiger, a Panther, Marder, etc.

Love your techniques. They are straight forward easy and have a nice finished appearance.

Well done.

Thanks very much Rick and Scott for your kind comments.


No. I always use humbrols (or oils occassionly) for washes, but the secret here is waiting time and humbrols own enamel thinner. Each successive wash will not be made until approximately 24 hours after the previous. Even when time is short, a wash can be made ... it takes max 10 minutes with clean-up. Then I can concentrate on something else. This also gives me the advantage of inspecting the piece and deciding whether I should go for an extra wash or not. If humbrol gets 24hrs drying time, its safe to wash over with its own thinner. Thats why I always use it ... experience and no surprises. Ive also used it "wet on wet", its so mild. But this takes more concentration and I usually do this on figures.
But ..... If I need a light coat or just change the overall hue slightly, I will add a filter with the airbrush and will use acrylics for this.


I use a lot of steps to get the result I want, but because they are easy, they are controllable and are easy to repeat. Takes all the stress out of modelling and no unexpected mistakes. Well thats the idea anyway :-) .

Hello again, Frank:

Oh ma' gosh. . . thanks for the solid information. I had
never thought about using Humbrols own thinner
which is not as "strong" a solvent and if enough time
is allowed for the Humbrol base coat to set up — at
least 24 hrs. as you clearly stated — the wash can be
made from Humbrol paints and Humbrol thinner with
no adverse effects (affects? durn burn it, English is so
hard ) on your base coat. I've been modeling
since 1965 and I have never tried that. Really
appreciate you taking the time to explain so clearly just
how you do this, Frank. Wishing you continued
success. I'll drink an Irish beer to your name.

Rick, your welcome. Ive been modelling for approx. 5 years now. It was Ralph Persico who gave me this information in the early days, but he recommended 48 hours. Hes probably right, but Ive been giving 24 hours for a few years without any problems. But I do insist on Humbrols own enamel thinner that is so mild. I suck when it comes to brush painting or using acrylics in anyway except for air-brushing, so this is a necessity for me . Either that or Im too lazy to give acrylics a decent attempt!
I do hope you enjoy the beer though!

Thanks!
Very useful!
I'll make one for my Jagdtiger (photos here)

Since the last time the cobblestones have recieved a heavy wash with burnt sienna oil and humbrol enamel thinners. As I didnt have time over the next few evenings, I took a short cut and sprayed with thinned tamiya today ...black first and then neutral grey. Although this is a lot faster, I covered the base colours a little more than I had planned. Still looks OK though.
Next is some washes of burnt umber and moss green in the gaps between the stones. This will define the stones better. The sign post is from the tamiya road sign set.

You´d think I´d listen to my own advise??? No, not me.
I actually ... for still some unknown reason to myself, used turps last night for a wash on my base and this happened today when I went to see it.

I noticed it was starting to flake in a few places,so I lifted them and then more were noticed, so I took a stiff brush and cleaned as much as I could, off. I was going to re-spray again but used the airbrush to blow any dust or flakes left and some more lifted. So I brushed the whole cobblestone area with diluted white glue in the hope that it will fix it, as it is now, and then I´ll repaint it.
The only thing Im glad about now is that the grass and bushes are not in place yet!
A weeks work down the drain!

To be fair to the Kincali product, it does state clearly on the painting section not to use solvents. Ive used Humbrol enamel thinner every time with it and its never harmed it. Need to look into some water soluable oils for the future!

That's terrible Frank after all your hard work, I hope the white glue works for you.

Gday Frank
Sorry to hear about the lost time! Nothing worse, but the only salvageable thing is that you don't realise at the time that you are going to lose all this work in future...
Funnily enough, I think the effect you have accidently created would work perfect for a concrete footpath/sidewalk, as an aged look

Hi Frank,

That was an interesting Learning by doing lesson for you but also for us all.
I was wondering why you don't work with a varnish protection coat between the different steps?
A coat of Matt coat after the first painting step should protect it from all subsequent washes and brushes.

Cheers and happy repainting

Claude

When you give some base a wash with humbrol thinner and if it hasnt dried enough yet and it flakes, just let it dry again and dont touch it because the flaking will disappeer, I know this from experience and it has happened numerous times. I advise you to experiment yourself: paint a bit of your base, let it dry for 3 hours and give it a big wash. Has soon as you noticed the paint getting corrugated just leave as it is because it will dry again and you will hardly notice the wrinkles.

By the way, I like how the cobblestones look like if that's any confort. I think its quite real because a street nearby looks the same..

Thanks guys for your tips and support since the last installment. Means a lot. Cheers.
Well, I went back to the start again! I painted the whole base with diluted white glue to hold everything that was already down and to provide something more solid for the next painting steps.
Base coated with tamiya dark grey ... again


Then some colours blocked in


Then this was drybrushed with a very light grey


Some washes with humbrol paint and "humbrol" thinner, and air brushed filters with tamiya colours.
Colours dont make much difference. I wanted to end up with a grey/green hue from the stones so thats basically what I used. Black was used first though to darken the overall colour. Some static grass has been layed around the edges. The vegatation will be built up over the next few days.


Closer. I guess you could say that this method is repeatable and quite realistic cobblestone colours can be achieved each time. The trick is to keep the paint thin and add an extra layer if needed and not going to heavy at the start and losing the base colours! Oh, and not using the wrong or an untried thinner!!!!!


How thebase looks at the moment

Begorrah!
Geez Frank, you're making this look easy peasey... The bright coloured method for the base is a bewdy, and the subtlety of the finished tones underlines this...
Is there going to be anything next to the gatepost where the sign is? What I mean, is that it looks to be the entrance to a park/garden/drive etc. so would there be a hedge or low/high wall there? Just a thought
Cheers
Brad

Thanks again Bradley. Much appreciated.


Yes there will be a hedge and grass in this area. The static grass in the last image above is the outline for the longer grass. I´ll have some more pics soon when its finished.
The method above for painting stones is "easy peasey". No point making life difficult! Just a little care and patience, and then knowing when to stop! Try it ... only one way to find out.

Vegatation is now attached. The colours are the bought product colours, but something will be painted or weathered slightly to suit the scene better.
This base will be formy water truck, and any further work on this base will be shown in that thread.
Move it 2 - Italeri water truck

All those crazy colors sure look good after all the washes.

Looking good Frank. Glad you're back on track with this. The vegetation looks great, I'll be keeping an eye on the other thread to see how it turns out.

Its looking very good Frank and the vegetation gives a nice contrast to the whole base. The signboard is a nice touch. Thanks for sharing your painting approach.