Monday, November 19, 2018

Trying my hand at sky board painting

In preparation for installing the Harney section into the layout the plastic sky board needed to be extended and as only the first few inches above the mountains would show I thought I would paint a sky backdrop to match the sky that is on the photo backdrops.

The test layout that has been along the end wall was taken down for access and another 16 inch wide sheet of fiberglass reinforced plastic panel was installed.  Seams and nail holes were patched with Spackle and then the panel was painted the wall color.
I have been using Artist Acrylic paints for my river bottoms and happy with those results picked up what I thought was a light blue and some white to add to my collection for working on sky boards.
I read somewhere that the higher sky is slightly darker than close to the horizon and that can be seen in the photo backdrops.
Even with lightening the blue, it dries a bit darker so I kept lightening.  Getting closer with each application.  I think when all is right I may need to spray some flat to get rid of the reflections from the lights.
The Winnemucca area also has a small sky board that I am painting.  This one also needs some lightening.

It's fun working with these Acrylic paints to get the results I want.  I may also try adding some clouds as I go along.

2 comments:

  1. Very neat. I'm about to start painting all my backdrops and been procrastinating Haha.
    I only use Acrylics and there are some great clinics on You Tube to follow.
    I used cloud stencils on my SFRSD and many of our club N Trak modules and they came out very nice. Use flat white spray but only very lightly. Lower the clouds the further they are away, the higher they appear the closer they are.
    Have fun. When you pull it off it is a great feeling Brad.
    Rod.

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    1. Thank you Rod, I am going to look into some of those clinics on youtube.

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